PART 3 ANTI-ANTI-NAZI BARBARIAN HORDES ARE KNOCKING DOWN THE

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USS Lincoln in FATAL Mutiny, Iran FORCES US Navy to TURN on Itself | Larry Johnson
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 2 hours ago #iran #usslincoln #usnavy

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson discusses Iran exposing a massive revolt on the USS Lincoln and Iran's involvement as the war takes an unexpected turn.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. As you can see, former CIA analyst, geopolitical commentator Larry Johnson is here with me to break down the latest developments. First, we begin with a shocking Iranian report. This comes from a military source close to Iran that says seven are now dead on the USS Abraham Lincoln after a brawl occurred amongst crew members and their superiors.

uh it broke out uh after the carrier spent months in the region nearly one year and and 200 plus days without port. Now US sources are saying something different. The Military Times are saying that multiple crew members on the USS Abraham Lincoln have tried to go overboard, indicating a a severe mental health crisis that families have made uh superiors in the US Navy aware of, but has received zero attention from the Trump administration. Now, in other news, the United States and Iran are reportedly supposedly from Pakistani mediators agreeing to extend a so-called 60-day ceasefire brokered by Pakistan uh with the current agreement supposedly ending August 17th.

But Iran has actually rejected these reports outright saying no such ceasefire exists because theou is not being abided by at this time and is essentially dead. Donald Trump today instead of addressing the naval crisis or this he has taken a a true social saying that the United States controls a straight of hormuz and uh will keep it saying that Iran is completely defeated has no money has no troops has no military. Larry, let's begin with what's happening aboard the USS Lincoln. What do you make of these reports?

Oftentimes in this war there's always been two conflicting truths. Now, uh, a lot of families are saying it's hard to get information on offboard the USS Lincoln right now. What's your understanding of what's going on and what do you make of these two reports that have come out from the Iranian side and from the US side? There is a crisis in the in the US military, but particularly in in the US Navy.

[clears throat] Um, I received a friend of mine, recently retired officer um and um he he he sent me the following today. He was just um he he was sort of livid. Uh he says with respect to this reported incident, he said, "And finally the truth. This is making the rounds.

If the Lincoln has 5,000 people uh on it and it hasn't seen land in 38 weeks, they are starving, no packages, rationing coffee, waiting to die. Uh they say the number is six attempts, nearly a year at sea, no land, etc. The real number of attempts is likely fivefold or tenfold. In other words, 30 to 60.

You have more attempts on a normal carrier operation. It's just normal, a factor of statistics. That's before being sent to your death on a purely political mission from someone who openly hates military members being hurt or dying. Six attempts sounds like a lot, but that number is way, way too small.

As an officer like them, I've had to do a number of Army Regulation 15-6 command investigations on soldiers committing. All officers have. It's a normal function, a real and stable number, too. And that's why you're still in.

They have no clue what's waiting for them the first night they return home for wherever. And they have time to spend alone thinking about it alone with nothing to distract you except your only friends Jim and Jack. You know, Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, referring to whiskey. Did you know they do roving patrols on all Navy ships called fire guard?

That term has become blanket use for all services. It means a rotating schedule to monitor the perimeter to make sure there are no quote fires. Wrong. The guard is to prevent people from cells on the spot.

Not dissimilar to phone factories in China. Fire guard still happens today in the army basic training. When you go to the field, when you go on an exercise or deployment, etc. It has nothing to do with preventing a fire.

part of the daily life in the military. Here's another example. In the big units such as the 82nd Airborne, the 101st Airborne, if the unit makes 82 or 101 days without a DUI, everybody gets a 4-day weekend. Well, they never got over three weeks without one regularly.

So, they had to increase the denominator to suicides. Everyone gets a long weekend if we make it to 82 days without his own unit. Guess how many days off there were? None.

So, we had to change the denominator again. Honestly, I think it was actually drugs. We may have made it to 82 days without someone caught and charged with using drugs in the barracks or whatever. Couldn't make it to 82 82 days without a DUI or a suic.

Um uh and then then he goes on to describe you know mentions his age when he was born. Uh and he says uh I I've had 24 years of PTSD from actually killed West in those days of divorces a few attempts mostly big wave surfing in Hawaii where you don't really expect to come back in. Granted, I was enlisted in the invasion of Iraq then, but but then I attended West Point and that started an entire successful officer career after that, including more combat deployments. If I've mentioned before, I'm the class president of my West Point class and have been for several years.

Uh, and so I have the numbers from day one of West Point until now. Committing at West Point is very regular. The preferred method since everyone is in pretty good shape and runs a lot is a run to Bare Mountain Bridge and then jumping. We had at least five commits while I was there.

And keep in mind, you can't just quit and go home uh for the most part. And then we lost some in combat particularly in 2009 2012 whenever everything heated up again post surge etc. But we've lost many more due to suicide as officers with families. You know what the one more you know what one more of the fun decisions I get to make as the class president?

Where do we place their names? How do they get uh bend or placed on the board? We have three demographics of dead classmates. Combat, su or non-combat injuries.

I get to listen to and deal with every single one of my dead classmates families argue about should their names be on the list of fallen in combat, if the majority fall deployed in combat, shortly after coming home from combat, or many years later. You can imagine how emotional those conversations are. So, six of 5,000 in a tinder box of rage called the Abraham Lincoln frustration and waiting for death for an for an multiply by multiply by five minimum. Then they end up just telling direct line supervisors, if you're sailor or self, it's on you.

Wow. How's that? How's that for How's that? Wow.

Now that's that is I mean that is indicative of of a major crisis. And Larry, the United States, Trump administration, they [clears throat] made this a naval war. They said that the Trump administration has relied so deeply, not just on the Iran war, but every single theater, Cuba, Venezuela, so deeply on on the US Navy. Now with Iran, there's absolutely no I mean the oil markets are reflecting this.

Uh what Iran is saying is reflecting this. There's no end to this war right now in sight. So what does this mean then moving forward given that uh the these problems that are arising on the USS Lincoln, they have consequences uh be even beyond uh the the horrific uh personal consequences for those on board. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it is. Well, it's a failure of leadership from the top. Failure by Donald Trump, failure by Pete Hgsth, failure by Admiral Brad Cooper, failure by the Chief of Naval Operations, failure by the Secretary of the Navy.

Like I said, failure across the board. Yeah. Yeah. Defin Total failure.

um you know what do you make of Iran's report that they say do you believe that there could also be of course the the anguish uh that these sailors are going through uh that lead to self harm and self-injury uh certainly verified now but do you believe that there could be some kind of also uh confrontations and clashes happening on the ship as things get incredibly uh uh dire and dangerous in this manner. Absolutely. You know, it's not out there. Yeah.

I mean, you're dealing with 5,000 people. It's not one big happy family. You know, they're going to be there. There there's, you know, I'm sure you've been in situations where a group of people and there may be some people you just don't get along with.

Um and then when you get under under this kind of pressure uh you know both uh the the the physical physical shortages, lack of food, lack of sleep, uh yeah, I I wouldn't be surprised if they if they had actually had some outbreaks of violence. This is this is uh bad. Yeah. Yeah.

That's that's what Iran is saying. Nobody else is reporting it. Nobody else wants to pick up the story, but Iran is saying that they have been informed that there was violent clashes on the ship uh this past week. But Larry, what are some of the other consequences too?

Because USS Lincoln is supposed to be one of of course uh the uh few aircraft carriers that the US has in its possession that make up the uh the real uh heavyweight strength of the US Navy. But being out in the Indian Ocean area that long also has some military effects and also technical effects on a ship like that, doesn't it? Like what how what do you believe the condition of the actual ship is? And is it even able to hell if you don't have crew uh uh ready to fight, then that's a whole big issue.

But what about the ship itself? Well, it's not so much the the ship. I mean the physical plant on the ship, you know, is going to require more maintenance just like anything that's mechanical where you get a lot of use. The maintenance is going to be critical.

Uh then you've got the aircraft on board the carriers. Uh and the the the F-35 is a hanger queen to start with. You know, a plane that needs lots of extra special care and can you know, frankly, not uh you know, be uh not not be readily operational. Uh so uh you know they've got that to deal with.

Um but it's not just the aircraft carrier. So you know as I've mentioned in other broadcasts you know I I I was contacted by the mother of one sailor uh now three weeks ago. uh and he was on the USS Tripoli and she was I mean she was furious that and she's a she a former u enlisted person in in the Navy I think as well said her son lost 30 pounds he came home gaunt you know when you got a when you got a normal 21 22 year old kid uh who's who's not a fat body and they they don't necessarily have 30 pounds to lose u but but that's what He did. Um I can I can show you a picture of me uh back when I was 22 uh going on 23.

No, actually I was 23 and I got a meic dysentery in Honduras and I I lost I lost like 25 pounds and you know I you know I was never even that skinny in high school. So that's what the you know he the food was awful but it wasn't just the food and and she sent you know I had photographs I had text messages email messages between mother and son so it was this wasn't just a fabrication this was she was reporting real life well um then last week ago Saturday in Chattanooga at Robert Barnes uh conference u which I was privileged to participate did uh I met the mother of a Marine and she began talking about her son had just come off deployment and I mentioned was was it food an issue and she said oh my god was it an issue and she launched into a a tirade about how bad the conditions were on board I think it was the boxer so you've now got the you got the parents of the Abraham Lincoln um carrier who were had a meeting last Thursday I believe in San Diego with the Secretary of the Navy. And boy, they lit him up like a Christmas tree. They were so angry.

So, you know what what we're looking at here is a complete breakdown in the in the in the leadership, the logistics, the support uh for these for these sailors and marines that are on board these ships. Now, what do you I'm sure I I I mean, I was hearing in some of these reports like in Stars and Stripes and Military Times that it's actually quite hard to get information from what's happening on the ship unless they're getting it directly, even from some who had to save uh some of these sailors from actually jumping overboard. Uh what do you make then of how uh people especially families of of these uh sailors and and crew members uh are feeling about the reports that uh there are consistently across the board. There's no continuity in the message about what's happening with the war.

Iran is saying absolutely no ceasefire. The war is going to continue. Iran is saying they're going to continue going till 2029. They haven't even met all their objectives yet.

While the Trump administration through Pakistan is trying to say that there's a ceasefire that's going to last 60 days. But what does this even mean to those who are responsible now to for uh for delegating this war and for uh conducting it under the current conditions of it which are are quite ambiguous to say the least. What are your thoughts on this? Well, I mean you're going to fight a war, you got to have an objective.

What's the objective? That's what Trump has failed to define. And so now now they're they've got these people stuck in a hole. What what is their mission?

Okay. So they're the the they're running a blockade. Well, they don't have enough ships to actually fully blockade the Indian Ocean. They can they can stop an occasional ship, but even if they stop that ship, are they going to take control of it?

If they have to take control of it, you have to detail a ship to sail with it. We don't we don't have an unlimited fleet by any stretch. We're extremely constrained. So um and and and it's haphazard.

You know, they're stopping son and not stopping the others. So this is um and then you get Trump's declaration like his true social today. " Really? Well then, and so the shutdown, the global shutdown of of liquid natural gas, helium, ura, and sulfur and oil, that's the fault of Donald Trump.

Okay, that's what he's admitting. He shut it down. Or or but then he in the in another breath he'll claim, oh, no, no, it's it's it's open. Straight of Hormuz is open.

We control it. Really? Then why aren't there any ships coming out? So it's just one lie upon another.

That's the problem. Yeah. Maybe you can help explain to uh what it means. All the ships that are actually coming out of the straight of Hormuz are going through the Iranian uh uh controlled or what it's being called Iranian delegated corridor.

Uh none through that so-called Omani corridor. What what is that? What does that effectively mean? And uh how does it how does it contradict the statements that Trump made today which appear as according to Iranian sources they're saying that uh it's just simply market manipulation and there's no reality to it.

But what's the uh what does it mean for uh the only ships that come out to be coming through Iranian controlled areas? Well, Iran made it very clear uh back uh I guess it was end of April or 1 of May when they introduced the Persian gay Persian Gulf Strait authority protocols and and they said they created a website. They created an online forms that you fill out. So if if you're a ship contemplating going through the straight of Formoose, you've got to provide the Iranians with ship's cap name of the ship, country of uh that flags the ship, name of the captain, destination of the ship, the cargo on board the ship, and the sixth and last thing is the the nationalities of the sailors on board the ship.

And yeah, essentially, you know, what Iran is doing is to make sure that no ship aligned with Israel coming through the straight. It is a it's a form of a blockade. Uh but they're also wanting to use that as a way to raise money uh for the for Iran that they're going to charge a fee in order to enter the strait. Uh now it remains to be seen the negotiations with Oman.

Uh they'll say okay we'll u you know we'll we'll uh put a toll or tax on every ship that comes in and then what you do with them leaving that's your choice. You can charge them, you cannot charge them, but we're going to collect our money up front. Uh so that'll put uh Oman I mean uh yeah it'll put Oman in in a fairly unique position to either let them all go without a charge or to get in on the money said hey there's a you know you're going to have to pay a users fee here. So um you know a lot of that is still up in the air to be um as far as what Oman's role official role is going to be.

They reports are that Iran and Oman have had positive talks, but we've seen no firm agreement and no no final announcement. Yeah. Yeah. It's been taking quite a while.

It feels like it's been a while since we heard those initial reports that it's very close the Iran Oman technical talks. Uh nothing yet and doesn't look like it's going to happen today, tomorrow. Uh Larry, help interpret what this means then because uh this was reported yesterday that lowest in 40 years the US strategic petroleum reserves are currently sitting. Mhm.

What does it mean for for this war? Because Donald Trump has said he's going to be relying now lowkeying it, relying on economic pressure of Iran. What kind of economic pressure does this place on the US and the world economy given that uh this situation isn't set to get better so long as everything about the war other than the strikes remains in place? We're on the edge of catastrophe.

So, um let's understand that I guess now the numbers down to around 290 million barrels. Is that is that the number you're seeing? Yeah. Let me pull it back up actually.

Here it is. Boom. Yep. About It says I think this was it 300 about uh it's got it's got to be less than 300 now.

It was 300 a few weeks ago. So of that of that let's of that 290. Uh, you've got to keep 140 45 million barrels. 145 million barrels minimum in the caverns in the salt caverns total.

You know, each each salt cavern is going to have a different level depending upon its volume, what it's capable of holding. But the reason you've got to keep, you know, roughly now 50% of what's left in storage is if you pump it out, the only way you can pump it out is you have to pump water in and oil's lighter than water. So the oil rides on the water to the top and then the oil sucked out. Uh but the problem is with all that water and if you if you're basically draining the last drop, you're going to create uh a crisis, a structural crisis for the salt cavern.

The water mixes with the salt, weakens the wall, the salt cavern collapses in on itself, and then you you no longer have a salt cavern to store that in. That's number one. Number two, uh, of that oil that's being drawn out, I'm not sure what the mixture is between sweet crude and sour crude. The the US refineries, particularly in the Gulf, 70% of the US refineries across the country, uh, are set up to deal with sour crude, heavy crude.

That is, it's high, that means it's high in sulfur content. And these these refineries, they're built to handle particular types of oil. It's not all oil is not created equal. It it differs.

So depending upon what percent of that oil that 145 million barrels that they can draw out, what percent of that goes to diesel and aviation fuel? Um so you now have a global shortage of diesel and aviation fuel because previously when the oil was flowing from the Persian Gulf at the rate of about 20 million barrels per day u about 2 million of those barrels would make their way to the United States to be processed. Now 2 million barrels may not sound like a lot but it's still it is still almost 10% So it's not inconsequential. But uh then the other refineries that were getting that oil out of the Persian Gulf were one's in India or a an area in India.

The others in China and the last the fourth one you know after US India China was Japan and South Korea. They get 90% of theirs out of there. So there there there now is a genuine shortage of diesel and aviation fuel which means the price of it climbing and going to continue to climb. So we're on the cusp of a genuine world economic crisis.

[sighs] Yeah. Yeah. That that definitely seems like where things are going. Yet the United States, Donald Trump is seems, as I've been saying for weeks now, whistling past this graveyard.

This is what Iran is reporting. The Persian Gulf Straight Authority denies US claims that the Straight of Hormuz is open, will not be reopened until conditions are accepted. And here is the numbers of what they are saying is occurring in terms of number of ships. But all of these ships are being approved of by Iran through their channel.

And so, Larry, uh, what does it mean to be approved of from their channel? Is Iran taking fees right now? Uh, Iran reported that they've lost quite a lot of money from the blockade, uh, in in many respects. Uh, are they recouping this from the straight form moves?

What's what's going on there? Uh, to my knowledge, not yet. um when when it comes time to collect funds, the money is going to be collected in Chinese renew. Uh so it'll be Chinese currency uh going into banks connected to China out of the reach of the United States.

So the United States can no longer seize Iranian assets or take steal Iranian money. Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh, I mean that's that's a game changer.

I'm wondering, Larry, maybe talk about because they put up the Baba mendup straight there as well. Any updates on the situation now with Yemen? Uh, surprise attack happened in the last on Saudi forces. Uh, Yemen has been pounding uh Saudi positions inside of Yemen uh supportive of the so-called uh southern government.

And I'm wondering if you could uh give an update on what's happening there and why is that situation escalating despite the fact that the Trump administration is trying to at least put the Iran war on some kind of ambiguous pause as it is or as it as they're trying to do now. You know there there are some fundamental truths in life. You know, you hear about like if you're in a hole, first first rule of crisis management, if you're in a hole, stop digging. And the Saudis forgot sort of correlary to that is like if you live in a glass house, don't get in a rock fight with a guy that lives in a quarry and has a brick house, okay?

Because they got plenty of rocks to throw. and and that's that that's the mistake that uh the Saudis have made in going after the Houthis. You know, the Saudi has a rich number of targets that are sensitive economically and that if hit or destroyed can can make uh Saudi Saudi life very very difficult, really hurt the economy. Um but uh the Houthies by contrast they don't have a lot of infrastructure.

Uh so just just dropping bombs on Houthy land isn't going to get you anywhere. So this is uh this is a case where the Saudis decided to pick a fight that they can't win. And like I said, if you're in a glass house, don't go throwing rocks. You're just setting yourself up.

And uh where would you uh how would you consider in terms of this uh regional war Larry? How how would you see this going if it continues on in this manner? Uh like what what is the fate then of Saudi Arabia? Uh the UAE I saw reports from certain geopolitical analysts saying the UAE and Israel now are in some kind of now uh alliance so to speak.

We have the Middle East [clears throat] that new the new pact in the Middle East between Turkey, Pakistan uh as well as Saudi Arabia. Uh what do you make of all this shuffling and what does it pretend for the regional situation as Iran, Yemen, and the various flash points uh begin to take shape in their outcomes? Yeah. Um there's the you know me Ryan and her quote partner they've been in a relationship for good god 45 years 40 years never been married.

Well I I draw that as a parallel to Israel and the UAE. They're just announcing their relationship for God's sake. It's been in place for what 20 years or more. So, [laughter] you know, it's it's laughable.

Oh, they've got an alliance. Well, no kidding. Sun rises in the east. You got any more news flashes for me?

You know, the And my sarcasm is not directed at you, Danny, but it's just directed at the the cluelessness of these news organizations that write stupid stuff like this because uh it it has been uh um or you know it it has been the case uh for for quite a while that UAE was seen as a tool of Israel openly. Um and I I forget I did the wrong cultural reference. It was Goldie Han, not Me Ryan, but you know, still the the point is you take something that's publicly known, it's visible to the public, everything, and then you come out and report it as news. It doesn't make sense.

Where did the Saudis go? The Saudis got one out here. Negotiate, settle, surrender, because otherwise um the the Houthies are going to keep breaking them up all day. They're going to keep knocking out ships that try to come through BL Mandab.

They're going to force the Saudis to use the Suez Canal. And you know, you're not going to see the Egyptians bitching about that because every Saudi ship that comes through the Suez Canal pays a fee. In fact, you know, you could almost maybe make the case that actually the real alliance here could be between the Houthis and and and the guys in Cairo that control the Suez Canal that they got a backdoor deal. Yeah, we'll give you 10% of everything that comes through.

So, um the Saudis militarily cannot defeat the Houthis. They've tried that. They've tried various methods. They certainly don't have an army of sufficient size to do it.

And their their whatever they have in terms of air power is offset by the Houthi's enormous uh stockpile of of missiles. Now Iran has reported Larry that their missile capabilities are only growing. They've updated their missiles essentially all of them to have the capability of evading air defenses changing uh I I think almost toward the end of their trajectory uh to evade uh air defenses but also uh that they are producing missiles at uh such a high rate that uh they are highly confident that they can go until that 2029 period and beyond should they need to use them. I'm wondering about Yemen though in Ansarala.

What are their capabilities? Are they just getting started? The Baba Bend straight is partially closed to Saudi shipping uh and commercial shipping, but there is activity going through it. Is this phase one?

Is this step one? Do they have the capabilities of closing it all together? What do you know about that? Yeah.

No, I I think they do have the capability to close it all together, but they're not going to. They're going to allow ships, particular ships related to China and Russia to pass. Um, but you know, they've already proven that they can't be beat. uh or to to beat them, it's going to require uh it's going to require a level of, you know, military investment and risk that, you know, the United States certainly wasn't willing to pay or or or risk.

You know, they we saw the we had two two carrier strike groups at one point in the Red Sea trying to shut down the Houthis and they failed. You know, it was over a 7-week period and they absolutely failed to shake the Houthis. So, you know, and the Houthies, I mean, these battle I look, they've been fighting these battles for centuries, and you know, the they they don't give up. So, it is, you know, this is one of the cases where the Saudis have they picked a fight with the wrong critter.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh that's for sure.

Now, I I don't believe I've had you on since Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed this uh defense pact, and I'm wondering your opinion on it. Some aren't taking it so seriously. Some are believing Iran made statements to the effect that they view any kind of act of sovereign defense as a a positive development. Others are questioning whether it's sovereign at all given the uh very contradictory situations that all these countries find themselves in.

Uh so what are your thoughts on it and what kind of impact does it make on the regional situation especially in regards to Iran and Yemen and the the regional wars that have been uh you know absolutely escalating. Well, I' I've come up with a name for it. It's, you know, it's the Middle East Treaty Organization. The shorthand for that is Me Too.

So, this is the Me Too movement. Um, I I I I would call it performance art. That's about, you know, it's not going to in any any foreseeable future convert itself into some sort of entity capable of acting militarily with any kind of force. Uh, you know, number one, the Saudis bring nothing to the table militarily.

Saudis are useless. Uh, you know, they've got a 250,000man army. uh supposedly uh but they can't even beat the damn Houthies uh and they've and they tried for 10 12 years u so you've got u you've got the that uh you have the the Turks who have a large army but u they're they're not real good at projecting force sending those troops outside of their country. And then you got Pakistan which provides in on at least in theory a ballistic umbrella over Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Now the fact that they signed it in Mecca, I think that's important. That was that was symbolic making sure they're making a declaration about the Islamic nature of this accord because if it was really secular, they would have signed it in Riad. But they made a point that Erdogan and Sharif the the foreign min prime minister of Pakistan were on hand to sign it in Mecca. So there was basically saying to the world this is a Muslim thing.

Uh that said they also reportedly pledged hey an attack on one is an attack on all. Okay let's walk through what has happened. uh Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had already made that agreement back in September of 2025 and since then Saudi has been attacked by Yemen and what did the Pakistanis and do nothing. They said not our problem.

So now in the wake of the signing of this meto agreement at at Mecca last week that within hours of said that being signed there was an attack in Saudi Arabia by by Yemen. So right off the bat that should have triggered hey we've been attacked. Come on. They attacking me.

They're attacking you. And the Saudis and would have been calling on Pakistan and Turkey. Come on guys. Let's go.

What happened? Nothing. Uh it is you know words no action. So um the uh the question about what does this agreement mean?

It's up in the air. Uh as you put right rightly noted about the reaction of Iranian authorities. " Um, now it does raise a question uh in the last few days Turkey has made some threats directed at Russia, at the at the Russians. So, do do you believe that if Russia and Turkey come to blows that the Saudi that the Saudis and the Pakistanis are going to rise up and join uh Turkey in a fight against Russia?

I don't think so. Uh so it was like I said this this is more like a performance in an art studio without any real substance. Hello. Sorry.

Sorry. I was muted. Uh, one comment before moving on to uh to finish the program on the Ukraine situation. The I believe Saudi Arabia and Pakistan also have supposedly a mutual defense pact.

Yeah, they they have a signed last September. I referenced that. And but throughout the throughout the Iran war, throughout the war in Iran, I mean Saudi Arabia was a party to the war was struck by Iran many times and then Pakistan ended up being a mediator with uh Iran these negotiations and uh and Iran having at that at this point taken advantage of this and built even closer ties to to Pakistan. So yeah, I nothing is set in stone it looks like with this uh defense pact expanding beyond bilateral ties.

But uh Larry, what do you make of the reports uh now that Russian strikes are getting more numerous, more consistent all over uh Ukrainian positions, military positions, Kiev, Zaparogia, uh these these aerial strikes, these missile strikes. Now there are reports that DPRK North Korea is more deeply involved according to Ukrainian sources mostly Valer Zalinski but Ukrainian intelligence. And then today I believe uh there were reports coming out of Japan that DPRK did test a ballistic missile as well. I believe there were some missiles being tested by China that the United States was very unhappy about uh saying that they wanted warning next time that China tests their advanced missiles.

um out at sea. Larry, what do you make of uh what's going on um with like what does this actually say about where the world is going? Uh it it seems like this indicates that these countries are very much not only coordinating and collaborating but that the world is changing quite dramatically. Your thoughts on it?

Well, yeah. No, you're absolutely correct that there is coordination, collaboration, China, Russia, Iran, uh you know, why why is North Korea employing troops and equipment in the war zone? What better way to find out if your stuff actually works? And you know they're they're not under the kind of political pressures you'd face in you say in the United States if Trump tried to deploy US troops to Ukraine to find you know to get combat experience.

But uh for the for the North Koreans getting combat experience is a good thing. uh you know they got to their attitude is these soldiers got to be trained anyway so might as well put them into the real deal where they get to find out if they you know how it works and so you've got you've got that going on u as as a dynamic uh in this entire process. Let's not forget that apparently yesterday when Putin was uh attending some ceremony with the uh Pac Russian Pacific Fleet, he gave them permission, gave them the green light to uh go after European ships, commercial vessels that are sailing in the Sea of Japan, Sea of China, in the Pacific that uh Russia was now going to retaliate against the European ships for the very thing that they've been punished trying to punish Russian ships for. So this you know this throws up, you know, a whole new dimension here.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And and you know what does it say too about where the US is at in this uh major what is a major conflict between uh the growing coordination of these countries China, Russia, North Korea, DPRK, Iran and uh US uniolarity especially on the military front because in many respects what we're talking about is coordination that doesn't exist for the United States and their so-called allies as well as the fact that uh Russia, China, Iran, even DPRK are moving ahead technologically in uh the realm of the military which is supposed to be the US's really the last remaining advantage it's supposed to have in the world to keep uniolarity. So, what do you make of this?

Well, um I put up an article last night that highlights uh the contradictions, inherent contradictions in US military planning and execution. So, the Pentagon has moved very rapidly to get money out there to to send it to Lheed Martin and General Dynamics say, "Hey, come on, man. We need to quintuple really dramatically expand the production of Pack 3 missiles. Here you go.

Here's the money. So, they got the money. The only one little problem. To produce those Pack 3 missiles, [snorts] you need two types of specialty magnets made out of rare earth minerals that are controlled by China.

And there's the Chinese have told the United States, "Yeah, you want uh you want these rare earth minerals? you want these parts, forget about it. You know, we're not going to arm you so you can turn around and use those weapons on us. We're not going to do that.

And that's exactly uh, you know, the United States now finds itself in a situation that we're out of missiles. We need to build more missiles, but we can't build more missiles because China controls the supply chain. Yeah, great points, uh, Larry. Now, uh, I wanted to close the program with some audience questions.

There's one here. Why is the US sending B-52s to train with Chile and Argentina? Is it a message to leftwing government Brazil or something worse? Yesterday, the US said they would make clear they are in control of all of the Americas.

Yeah, this is coming with a lot of developments, Larry, in this part of the world in the Western Hemisphere. But what do you make of that? I haven't even heard that report. I I think it's just looking for an excuse to send these guys on training missions where it'll buy him some goodwill and but uh won't put him at risk.

So yeah, I you know, we're not going to attack Brazil. Hell, we like I said, we can't even handle the Houthies. Yeah. Well, there's certainly something a foot all over Latin America.

Venezuela is restoring some ties now with Israel. Um, and of course, there's lots of talks even of uh attempting to manipulate elections in Brazil coming up, similar to what happened in Colombia earlier. Yeah. This summer.

Yeah. I mean that look the um the appeal of making a a turn to the right curring favor with Washington you know that's been done for years and then it ultimately leads to a backlash in those countries just a matter of how long to wait. Yeah. Yeah.

I was I say I to put it as like seasons. uh right now it uh it's their their season the return to the right in the US back forces and then you know where where the next period however long that is uh port or tends it usually isn't favorable uh to the United States it usually as you said it's a it's a backlash and that's coming well Larry you know in the last five or so minutes or so that we have together uh uh maybe you can talk about what what is actually happening for the Ukraine conflict right Now, uh there are reports that Ukraine supposedly hit uh critical shipping [snorts] for Russia in the Black Sea. Uh there's of course almost daily attempts to lob drones at Russia into Russian territory and then there were the strikes we said earlier and of course the battlefield which gets uh less attention these days uh by the western mainstream media. So what's what's happening there and uh where is it heading?

Uh it's heading for the complete utter defeat of Ukraine uh potentially as soon as the end of this year. Uh the destruction, the shutdown of trade coming out of through the Black Sea by uh you know vessels entering or exiting Odessa or Nicollay. That's closed off. That's that's no longer an activity that's g that Russia is going to allow.

Russia can continues to destroy critical infrastructure in Kev and other major cities including Lav. Uh and this is having a cumulative effect on reducing uh Ukraine's readiness. Uh so uh it is a um it's a situation that when you compile the the closure of the economic gateway to the south basically choking off Iran or choking off Ukraine then you the ground operations are such that you're attacking on at least seven axes of attacks. In previous years, the most uh the Russians would in do are two axis of attacks, but now they're doing at least seven.

So it's uh up in Chernig, Sunumi, Kiv, uh Daetsk, Zaparisia, Neprop, Petros, uh and Odessa. So that'd be seven. So yeah, this is um you know it is it's it's a level of activity that uh Ukraine can't can't can't stop. And so they're they're losing on they're losing through the air war, they're losing through the naval war.

They're losing through the ground war. It's just it's a matter of time before they're fully cooked. And is it a matter of time before the the narrative war? Because the narrative war right now uh because I mean in large part because of the western mainstream media has so much dominance over the information uh that comes out of this conflict for viewers who watch this program and people who live in our part of the world in the west.

But nevertheless, uh how long until the narrative war ends up turning given well yeah that facts are facts that the the narrative war doesn't care about facts. So uh we're going to see see this continue for uh you know the narrative war will continue I think even weeks or months. I just saw an example today. Some friends sent me something from a Ukrainian source talking about how the Russia still failed to take Pakovsk and I wrote back, "They took the damn thing four months ago.

What are you talking about? " Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you you just do a general search on the internet about what's happening in Ukraine and it's almost wallto-wall.

It's wow, Ukraine is pounding Russia in the Black Sea. Ukraine is hitting Russia with all these drones and that's really the extent of of what you get coming out of this conflict at this point. There really is no attention to the battlefield as well as to uh the effectiveness of what Ukraine is doing on on Russia. Well, any final words, Larry, before we close out at the top of this hour on uh the current situation worldwide?

Nope. I think we covered it and like I need to jump anyway. So, thanks, Danny. All right.

Well, Larry, thanks so much for joining me today. Everybody hit the like button. Yeah, Larry, I'll talk to you soon. Um, everybody hit the like button before you go.

That helps boost the show in YouTube's algorithm. Be sure to check out Larry's work in the video description, too. His uh blog as well as the YouTube channel, Transition Protocol, is there. You can subscribe to that.

All the ways to support this channel are in the video description below as well where you can support me on Patreon, Substack, and so much more. I want to thanks thank you to Christa for being an incoming new member. Thank Fragmat Frackmatic for that. Thank you.

I I asked your question to the member here uh Soberano Brazil 9370. Thank you so much also for the super chat. Thank you DJ369 Miami with the cloud and chief. Nothing is surprising.

Thank you so much. and Regina uh Perez do Santos, thanks so much for your super ticker. All right, everybody. That's it.

Tomorrow at uh What am I doing tomorrow actually for a program? m. Eastern time. How could I forget?

Uh Scott Ritter is coming on the program. We're going to continue our daily updates of the geopolitical situation. So, be sure to tune in to that. m.

Eastern, I have Alistair Crook coming on the show. So, two great shows coming up in the next two days. Everyone hit the like button before you go. That helps boost the show on YouTube's algorithm.

And until next time everybody, I will see you

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Part 1 of 2

Scott Ritter: Iran Ass*ssination Plot BLOWN by Israel, 5,000 US Navy Sailors JUMP SHIP
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 116 minutes ago #iran #iranwar #usslincoln

Former UN Weapons Inspector & US Marine Intel Officer Scott Ritter discusses the shocking developments in an alleged Iranian attempt on Trump's life plus new details emerging on the crisis aboard the USS Lincoln as 5,000 US Sailors face the brink of catastrophe.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. As you can see, I am joined by Scott Ritter to go over the latest developments. First, we begin with I know you have covered this on other programs, Scott, but there have been updates on the catering cart escape of Donald Trump during the NATO summit where he took another flight and left essentially the whole White House press staff and the rest of his administration staffers on the Air Force One which was said to be targeted by Iran, an Iranian cell inside of Turkey during the NATO summit armed with man pads. ready to assassinate Donald Trump.

While Turkey is now saying they suspect Israel fabricated this assassination plot to derail US Iran talks and a deal. Well, there's more to this now. The CIA today reported in the Washington Post that they had low confidence in this Iranian threat before Trump switched planes in that humiliating fashion last month, saying that this was an Israelder derived communication and plot with absolutely little reality to it. Well, in other news, uh this story keeps on getting worse.

uh the USS Abraham Lincoln, the 5,000 Marines and sailors on that aircraft carrier have faced a uh self harm, self-injury, and uh a major crisis on the ship where unrest uh shortages uh deteriorating conditions, endless shifts, and now a 200 plus day deployment is set to end after a brawl. According to Iran, there was a brawl on the ship uh after a Sentcom adviser visited. There were water bottles thrown. There was skirmishes that led to actually, they say, seven dead.

No confirmation of that. But now, after all this pressure and all of the talk about what's happened on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the last several days, the USS George Washington is going to replace the USS Lincoln at sea, and that will take about eight days to happen. Scott, uh, how about first start with the sto news about this Israeli now, it seems like plot to, uh, hype up an assassination threat on Donald Trump. What do you make of what's happened in the last few days with this and the revelations about it?

And then we can get on to the Abraham Lincoln, your thoughts. Well, I mean, this is one of the most humiliating um episodes in the history of uh an American president. Um you know, the the United States is supposed to be a superpower. Presidents of the United States don't travel casually.

Um I know firsthand when for instance the president of United States comes to New York City uh to you know speak at the United Nations the security arrangements are beyond comprehension. um [clears throat] you know and and most of which you don't talk about. It's it happens uh you know because he's the president of the United States. You have to keep this man secure.

But you know he the US intelligence community is singularly focused on detecting threats to uh the president of the United States. Uh and when the president of United States travels abroad uh it's not a spur-ofthe- moment thing. We will have coordinated extraordinarily closely with our Turkish allies. Um Turkey has a vested interest in ensuring that the president and all other uh participants in a high-profile event like the NATO summit um are secure in their work.

Um and and you know, we weren't born yesterday. We know the threats we're looking for. We know how they operate. Um we've been looking at them for a long time.

And we also understand that we, you know, that the president is traveling in a time of conflict and that there are um, you know, nations out there that could possibly uh, be seeking uh, to to do harm to him. Um, and so the the idea that the president traveled to Ankura and suddenly out of the blue uh, a threat emerged of such gravity that the president humiliates himself. uh in this just ridiculous, you know, catering cart caper. Um and and it's a disgrace to leave his secretary of state on an airplane together with staffers, White House staff and um you know, a press pool leaving them exposed to this threat.

What kind of coward does that? It's not a matter of opsac either. You know, this isn't a wartime contingency. Um, you know, one can make the argument, for instance, in World War II that um when in the leadup to D-Day 5 minuteswhen we found that the Germans had broken uh they were going to attack uh using Eboats attack a exercise um you know, we didn't stop it because we didn't want to let the Germans know that we had detected that we had broken their code.

So, we allowed the attack to take place and um you know, hundreds of Americans lost their lives. Um it was determined that that was a price we were willing to pay to preserve the codes, but we weren't preserving anything. This uh this if if this was a threat, there are ways that you can secure the president without this top secret stupidity. Um you know, Turkey has a base near Ankura.

Um the Merrted base, uh we used to have American nuclear weapons stored there. We know this base inside and out. uh you take the president to Merrt um a secure facility um re Air Force One uh relocates or this other aircraft relocates there. Uh if it's too dangerous for Air Force One to fly, then you find another aircraft to come in.

Um there's just so many different things that could have been done that were correct that this was done is shows that this was a uh a gimmick. Um it was you know this president has been guilty of relying upon almost exclusively Israeli intelligence in the past. In fact we went to war against Iran because of Israeli intelligence in his his insider you know group in the White House are all pro-Israeli you know syphants. Um and so here what you have is a a case where Israel manufactures something out of thin air.

Um feeds it bypasses the normal security protocols uh intelligence protocols feeds it directly to uh Trump's insiders who hatched this this horrific plan. It was all theater designed to create the impression that the president was a wartime president, that there was great threat, that Iran is a threat to the United States, to get the United States stopped talking about peace and going to war. Um, all it did is is show once again that Israel is not our friend. I hope everybody understands that Israel is not our friend.

They're our enemy. They behave like a hostile power feeding false information in. And the president's one of the most uh disgraceful cowardly human beings on the face of the earth. Uh no president would have approved of this.

No president would have approved it. You know the president can tell the secret service no just say no that's not happening. Where was the chief of staff whoever came up with this idea and said do you understand you're talking about the president of the United States the office of the presidency the commanderin-chief of the American military. He doesn't escape in a catering cart.

Um, you know, he walks out with his head held high, uh, because he's the world leader. Donald Trump showed himself to be a disgraceful coward of the most despicable kind. And this is a condemnation, not just him, but it shows you the character of the people advising him. These are sneaky liars.

These aren't honorable people. We'd like to believe that the people that do public service are doing it because they love their country and they want to serve their country. These are people that serve as part of a cult of personality and um they don't care about their country. They don't care about, you know, what what what image this sends to the world.

You know, the Lego guys in Iran, you know, they're the most effective propaganda outlet have seen in modern times. They're having a field day for this. An absolute field day. Um, and you know, their their movies resonate greatly amongst the American population because they found a way to identify with the American people through, you know, Legos, sort of America.

It doesn't get much more American than that, the Lego movie. Um, but also music and the language. Um, and and so this president once again has just opened himself for 9 minutesfor humiliation. This is uh there was no threat to the president of the United States whatsoever.

and um he he's just proven himself to be um the most despicable coward imaginable. Um I'm [clears throat] ashamed of him. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, here's some of that footage of some of the videos that have been circulating uh from explosive media about this uh about this incident, which Yeah. I mean, Scott, even let's say 100% everything Israel was saying was true, the very uh the very information that we're being reported on in the Western mainstream media about what Israel said is quite interesting because they said a cell inside of Turkey with armed with man pads was solely prepared to strike the Air Force One, which uh you know the scandal was was it doesn't have any of the fixtures needed to protect from any kind of uh you know any kind of striker or or targeting of of that plane. But the fact is is that Iran I was I was reading wet recently and the Israelis were complaining about how there's infiltration all up and down the Israeli defense forces from Iran. They found all kinds of willing participants to do this.

What? Who? Why? Why wouldn't Iran think that this could also be a scenario where he would try to escape on a decoy?

It's It's so ridiculous to think that this was such a to get fed that information and then buy into it and go through this whole song and dance, which only makes you look uh really stupid and it's really humiliating to say the least. Uh your your comments on this before moving on. [snorts] Well, the other thing we have to understand is the Iranians, you know, what what's happening here is a lot of projections. Um, and the United States is guilty of this and Israel knows this, so they exploit it.

Um, we tend to project onto our opponents our behaviors. Um, we're the ones who assassinate world leaders. We're the ones who, you know, uh, use assassination as a tool of diplomacy. Um, you know, we we undermine negotiations by assassinating people.

And so um you know having conditioned the American public to the normaly of assassination as a matter of public policy um the American public is likely to believe when we project our behaviors on to others whom we deem to be of an evil character like the Iranians. We say that the Iranians are position himself to assassinate the president of the United States while he's in Turkey. But nobody ever had stepped back and said why why would they do that especially at this time. Um Iran just won the war.

I mean when when the president showed up in Ankura the war was over. Um we lost. We ran out of ammunition. We we ran out of you know we we have no ability to project our you know military power meaningfully into the region.

We can't seize the straight moves. can't seize [clears throat] Car Island, we can't seize Isvahan, we can't do anything. Um, except the longer this war dragged on, the more Iran was able to damage us with ballistic missiles um that we couldn't stop. So Iran, having won the war, was now in a position of trying to negotiate the best conflict termination event possible.

Understand that that is the priority of Iran. They're not going to surrender their sovereignty. They're not going to um you know give in to the United States, but they don't want this war to continue. They're looking to bring this war to an end.

That's their strategic goal and objective. So why kill Trump? It makes no sense. " But there's a time and a place.

The Iranians are strategic thinkers and they're not going to assassinate a president at the moment he just lost a war by killing the president. What you guarantee is America will rally around the martyrdom of an American president and bring the wrath of America down on Iran. The last thing Iran wants is America to strategically shift the totality of its capacity to the destruction of Iran, which we would do if they killed our president. And the Iranians know this.

So, right off the bat, there has to be an intelligence officer inside the inner circle that says, "This doesn't make any sense. " And where's the intelligence come from? Let's look at it. let's parse it out.

But that wasn't allowed to happen because Israel was the source of this. And Israel went 14 minutesstraight to the president's inner circle who cocked up this stupidity. No real intelligence officer worth their salt would have said this assassination plot makes sense. It doesn't make any sense.

And therefore, you have to dig deeper into the source of the intelligence. And now that it's coming from Israel, you have to demand, this is a threat against the life of the president. You demand access to the primary intelligence information. I want the sigant hit.

I want to know everything about it. How you collect it? What frequency? Where were these people at?

What's going on? You got a human source. Give me the damn name. This is my president.

Oblivion if you don't respond. Because you're talking about the security of the commander-in-chief of the United States. It's not a game anymore. and that we treated it like a game, a stupid game, a game of hide-and-seek.

It's humiliating. This is st I I'm just here to tell you that real intelligence professionals, real security professionals would never have allowed this to happen. Not and and 15 minutesyou can bring them in. Bring in the Secret Service, they'll tell you the same thing.

Real Secret Service officers, what a horse of crapload of garbage this was. I mean, because you actually made the president less secure [laughter] because you're violating all sorts of protocols to to for what? Put him in a cart so he can get on another airplane. You know, what happened to the other threats?

I mean, was this what a C38J suddenly uh you know, not vulnerable to uh Iranian man pads? I What the hell was going on? This is just it's just a horrible thing. Uh humiliating for the United States.

It shows we're an amateur country. Literally, we're a banana republic. Well, in uh the other news, Scott, that I know is uh dear to your heart, which is the uh condition of those who have been forced to spend 9 plus months uh out toward the Indian Ocean just outside of the Persian Gulf uh because of this ongoing permanent blockade, which Pete Hexf said is going to go on as long as it takes. Now the USS Lincoln, the crisis aboard where those 5,000 Marines and sailors are going through such a crisis that several have tried to take their own lives.

Now it's being replaced by the USS George Washington almost seemingly to repeat this process all over again. So what have been your thoughts on on this crisis? Iran went so far as to say there was a big skirmish, a big brawl on the ship that could that led to deaths unverified for now. But your thoughts on what's been going on in the USS Lincoln and US Navy in general?

Well, first of all, we don't know if any of these stories are true, so we have to be careful about this. Um, you know, it's in Iran's interest to um to put emphasis on things that make the United States and the United States Navy look bad. Um there's a lot of information warfare going on right now and you know what what it would be in Iran's benefit to get the United States public enraged over you know the extended deployment of the Abraham Lincoln and the horrific uh you know state of affairs on board for the crew. Um if I were the Iranians I'd want to promote this kind of story.

So we have to take a step back and be careful on the sourcing of this uh data. Um but what we do know is this. Um the we are not in a state of war. No war has been declared.

Fact is according to President Trump there's no we're not even in a military operation anymore. That ended. Um so here we we we have to look at you know what the US military has become in recent decades. Um we're not the expeditionary fighting force that um we used to be.

You know, when I joined the Marine Corps, um the junior Marines weren't allowed to be married. I think you had to wait till you're like a sergeant. Um if you want to get married before sergeant, you had to get permission. You had to go and uh and and talk because Marines belong in the barracks and Marines trained hard and there was no time for a wife.

There was no time for families. Um Marines lived in open bay squad bays and quanset huts. Uh not the glorified little hotels that they live in today called, you know, their barracks. Uh squad bays.

Um, this was hardcore. [laughter] The the Fleet Marine Force was no uh was no joke. Um, but when you deployed, you deployed hard. Um, I mean, you were going on a six-month pop.

Um, and you knew it. And you also knew that contingencies could arise that extended that and you were ready for it. You you actually prayed for it. Uh, you prayed for war every day.

Every morning, Marines woke up and prayed for war because that's what they were training for. Um, today we we we everybody's married. Um, not not against the institution of marriage, but understand that that's not conducive to a professional fighting force. Uh, because now, uh, people have priorities that aren't learning to close with and kill the the enemy.

Um, priorities like u, you know, I got to get my kids to school on time. U, I need more money, so I have a second job. I got to go work at Home Depot doing the night shift once I finish doing my marine thing during the day. I'm sorry.

when you join the US military, you're a soldier, sailor, airman, marine, coast guardsman, or guardian a day, seven days a week. Um, you don't get a second job. But today, they do. They all do.

And commanders tolerate this. Uh, because of course you have to take care of your people. Um, and when we deploy now, we, you know, there's a timeline. We talk about it.

" When I was in when I was a kid, my dad was career air force. Uh we moved when we moved. I left in the middle of a school year every single time I went to school. I mean, I'd start a school year and next thing the government says, "You're out of there.

" They don't care. They don't care about my my friends. They don't care that I'm in a school play or I'm playing football or anything. You're gone.

Unplug. Go plug in. Um and you just bid it. [laughter] And every two years, and we didn't move in the summer.

We moved in the middle of the freaking school year every [laughter] single time. That's just the way it was. But today, everything has to be balanced. You know, uh families relocate.

They get, you know, uh they they they, you know, things are done, vacations are planned on when you're coming home. Um all this kind of stuff. All these plans are made that are centered around family life and around the emotional well-being of the service member and his or her family. Um, and then when war comes, everybody's shocked when people are like, "Wait a minute.

" Well, no kidding. Um, of course it is. But this is a leadership failure because you didn't prepare your sailors for this eventuality. Um, that you didn't prepare them for their families.

And when this happened, you didn't have the leadership programs in place to brief your sailors effectively. And and they're saying that there's shortages of food. What kind of leader lets these shortages happen? Again, we're not talking about a nuclear war where there's no milk and everything's gone and you got to, you know, take your own urine and, you know, boil it up to get water and all that.

No, no, no. This is the United States of America. All right? If you're the commander of an aircraft carrier and you're out of milk, you get on the phone and you say, "Give me some goddamn milk now.

I don't care what it costs you. Put it on a freaking airplane and fly it out here. I want milk for breakfast tomorrow because the morale of my sailors depends upon it. These are the guys.

Remember, aircraft carriers, they're they're cities and the work they do. You don't want people screwing up. This is why you take care of your sailors on board. You know, you keep them you got to get that mindset focused on the mission.

So, you know, you feed them well. We always fed our troops well. Always on a ship. You the sailors ain't good.

Um, and you don't run out of food. There's no excuse for this. There's zero excuse for this. Uh, you and the the Navy knows this.

The Navy knows how to they we've been supplying food to ships for forever. Um, so this is just an abysmal [clears throat] leadership failure. And you know, this happens when you have a Secretary of Defense that has lost control of the of of the department that he's responsible for overseeing. He spends more time running with idiots, bench pressing, and doing things like this instead of sitting down and making sure that the basics are done first.

You know, every military leader knows, you know, it's bullets, bandage, and beans, beans, beans. You feed your freaking troops on time, on target. Um, there's no excuse for this. Isn't war.

The Japanese didn't sink your resupply ship. " But this can't happen that you can't have uh discipline like this falling apart on on a ship. This means that the Navy's lost control of the Navy. Um you know, because again, the military isn't meant to be, you know, a convenient lifestyle 9-to-five job.

You join the military because you're prepared to go to war. in war as hell on earth. You don't get to sit there and and moan. War is about dying for your country, you know, which is a hell of a lot worse than not getting cold milk for breakfast.

Um, but, you know, so you got to be hard. You got to be willing to drink water uh and and and and eat bread if that's what's needed. Uh, you got to be willing to gap a meal. You know, Marines were on Guadal Canal when the Navy sailed away because the Japanese were putting too much pressure and the Marines were abandoned on Guadal Canal.

Did they sit down and and moan and cry and surrender and whail? No, they dug in and they fought until the Navy decided to come back and get them supplies. Um, you know, this 24 minutesmilitary is just soft as hell. Soft as hell.

I don't have any sympathy for the sailors on the Abraham Lincoln. None whatsoever. Yes, they have a leadership failure, but you know what? Be a professional.

Be a professional. You signed up for this. This is what you when that raised that hand, this is what you said you wanted to do. And now it got real.

You know what? You're complaining because you've been to sea. You know, World War II, they those guys were out there all the time. They didn't get to go home.

But the the fault again is the system. The system softened these sailors up. And this is just a horrific lack of discipline across the board. This ship should be brought back to port and everybody should be subjected to review.

And if anybody has if there's a leader failure from the captain or admiral in charge all the way down, they should be relieved of command and relieved from the military. This isn't how we win wars. This is how we lose wars. This has to be a lesson.

I know that's probably not the answer people want to hear. They want to hear me talk about the sympathy for the poor sailors. No way. None.

You signed up. You took the oath. It's a volunteer military. You knew what you were getting into.

So I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. It's a It's another disgraceful act. They I don't believe they should be there. I don't agree with what they're doing.

I don't agree with the mission. But that's no excuse. You're in You're in the damn Navy. [laughter] You know, do your damn job.

And Scott, what if the job too, you said you don't agree with the mission and all of this, then wouldn't also an option be, similar to what I've heard others say as well, and I believe you said how you've said this as well, uh don't follow illegal orders, don't follow orders that uh you know are, you know, counterintuitive to the interests of of the United States, which you said you're defending. No, no. There's no such thing as don't follow an order that's counterintuitive to the interest of the United States. the sailor doesn't get to make that decision.

Okay? And when you say don't follow illegal orders, you have to be very careful here because an illegal order is, you know, don't torture a prisoner of war. That's apparently illegal. Don't murder children.

Don't, you know, do this. But, um, launch this plane. " None of your business, sailor. Launch the damn aircraft.

load that bomb on that plane. Well, sir, I have to know where that bomb's going. No, you don't. Ordinanceman, do the damn job.

See, we have to be really careful about here because the every order given by the military is presumed to be legal at face value unless it's facially illegal. We don't get to have constitutional discussions at the tactical level. And just because you don't agree with war, I don't think we should be bombing Iran. Tough you join the Navy, put the bomb on the airplane, launch the airplane craft on time, or you're going to be court marshaled for failure to obey a lawful order.

War sucks. Straight up sucks and you're not going to get the perfect war every time you go out there. Bad stuff's going to happen. But to sit here and say this is illegal, you don't get to make that decision as a sailor unless it's so patently.

" No, sir, that's an unlawful order. You get to do all that. Get up at 5:00 in the morning. Sir, that's some that violates my constitutional rights.

No, it doesn't. Get up at , uh, have breakfast by , be on the flight deck by six o'clock, ready to rock and roll, and obey every order I give you. And you know what? I can give you all sorts of orders you're not going to like.

You're staying up for 48 straight hours. Sure, that there's no constitutional right to sleep. You're in the military in a time of conflict. You know, people need to understand the military is hard duty.

It's not meant to be easy. and get this constitutional crap out of there unless it's flagrant. You don't get to question the orders of your superiors. I'm sorry, that's not how the system works.

You don't get to become, you know, your homemade constitutional scholar and say, I I think this war with Iran is const is violation of the Constitution. Really? You want to have that conversation right now, Corporal? You want to have that conversation?

Tell me how it's a violation of the Constitution. Let's get into it. Really, all the people in there are saying it's unlawful. The Congress of the United States gave the president of the United States war powers authority.

The president of the United States can go to war for 180 days without the approval of Congress. So nothing he did was unconstitutional. Do you guys understand that? Do you understand that Congress abregated its constitutional responsibilities for war a long time ago with the Pore Powers Act?

So don't sit here and pretend that you all are constitutional scholars. The president can order the military to bomb anybody at any time without congressional authority and it's a lawful freaking order unless he's murdering civilians and things of that nature. So, we have to be really careful about, you know, invoking the Constitution here. " Um, you only get to say that if it's a straight up flagrant violation of the law of war, executing prisoners, torturing prisoners, killing civilians, but doing your job.

I'm [laughter] sorry, you don't get to say it. I'm not going to do my job because it's unconstitutional. I know people that, but this is this is reality. This is the hard truth, right?

No, I mean, it is certainly the reality as as you said, Scott, as how 30 minutesthe system actually works. And I guess I'm curious then because what does this say then about you said you know you don't agree with the mission uh why they're there in the first place. What does it say about that? because it seems like you said that there's this contradiction between uh you know um not being at war but yet being permanently deployed with you know and the conditions are getting worse and worse and yet there is no war footing but there is a blockade and Iran sees the blockade as a war and that's why they're there right they're there to enforce the blockade so I guess my question is then what does this say about overall the US's military posture because now Iran is saying they're going on the offensive.

They're going to wait this out until 2029. Uh they don't have any problems with the US continuing to pretend like it's at war or not at war, any of this. But it seems like it's having a really big effect on the morale of the US uh uh military forces, navy, etc. So, your thoughts on this?

Well, now we get a different scout. Okay. Because now we're you're you ask me a different question alto together. Um, why do you serve?

What What motivates you to serve? I can straight up tell you that I I volunteered to serve. Uh, I enlisted in the summer of 1979 because I truly believed that the Soviet Union was an evil force. I lived in West Germany.

The the the the Soviets were over there in East Germany. And I truly believe they were wanting to come over and end democracy as we knew it. And I was serving to defend my country, defend my way of life, to defend democracy. And I truly believed it.

I mean, now that I'm a little bit older and studied history a little bit more, I realize it was all croc But, um, at the time, I truly believed it and I was I joined ready to die for my cause. Um, I believed in it 100%. And later as I transitioned the Marine Corps, I continued to have this belief system that we were on the side of good. Now, you know, you begin to see things and realize that not everything's perfect, but you believe overall I'm serving.

I'm in service of good, of justice, of righteousness. Um, and and you let it balance it out. Um, today, what good are we doing? What what are we serving today?

If you wanted to join, you know, I've always struggled with this because I've had people come up and say, "Scott, my my son, my daughter wants to join the Marine Corps. " And I I would say, you know, they got to have a long hard conversation with themsel understanding that uh you you give an oath to the Constitution that you serve the nation, not the president, but you have to obey the president's orders. You can't join the military because you're happy with the president you have because in four years while you're still in, you might get a president that you don't support. And you have to be willing to obey those orders from that president because that president is the commander-in-chief.

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Part 2 of 2

So you you have to be honest with why you're joining, what service you're providing, what you believe in, is this a cause worthy of your life. Um, and if it's about economics, I'm doing this for the money, you're making the wrong damn choice. Because believe me, your paycheck doesn't matter a hoot. " No, no, no, no, no, no.

Now you're into a whole different environment. Why are you there? What are you doing? Um I just had a you know I wrote an article about um a statement made by a German uh journalist u Michael Martins uh uh when he talked about killing Russians and uh you know in the article my response I I brought up uh David Gman's book on killing uh which talks about you know because let's just be straight up guys war is about killing.

It's not about anything else. War is about man killing man. That's why it's the worst thing in the world. That's why you should never want war.

It's humankind acting as basis moment. Um it's the ugl it just makes mankind ugly as hell. Um and what Gman said is, you know, and this is sort of the good news. The vast majority of soldiers in World War II didn't fire their weapon.

Uh and then when they did, many of them didn't aim. Why? Because they didn't want to kill. Killing's hard, and that's good.

You should make killing hard. But today, we made killing easy. We've we've changed up our training. we've we've done.

But the the end result of making killing easy is that um understand that when we make people kill, they're broken for life and then they come back and and it's it's done. This is all the reality of going to war. So I keep telling them that you understand if you join the Marine Corps and you go to war and you kill um you're never going to be the same. And the parents need to understand that little Johnny will never be the same.

That doesn't mean little Johnny's broken forever, but little Johnny will never be the same. Little Johnny is going to have some bad happen in his brain and uh it's going to affect him for life and he may become an alcoholic. He may become a wife beater. He may become a drug addict.

He may become a criminal. Um it's going to break him. Little Johnny. Johnny went up marching off.

He's not coming home. [snorts] Um but even then sometimes you have to say, okay, that's the price I'm willing to pay for the greater good. I'm defending the greater good. What greater good are you defending today?

And this is the question. And the answer is there is no greater good in America today. The oath you take, the oath of service is to the constitution. But right now, if the American people can't tell me what the damn Constitution is, that means we aren't a constitutional republic.

Because we can only be a constitutional republic if we the people of the United States of America um have read the Constitution, absorbed the Constitution, lived the Constitution, hold others accountable to the Constitution. Then we're a constitutional republic. The vast majority of American citizens couldn't take a test on the Constitution. They pass it.

they couldn't pass the citizenship test, you know. So, if you become a citizen, you take a test. I think the passing grade is 100%. And if you fail, you don't become a citizen.

Well, imagine if every year every American citizen had to take a citizenship test. We wouldn't have any American citizens. Um, so right off the bat, the people joining the military today are serving what? Not a damn thing.

Because this isn't the United States of America. This is something else. This is a diseased society that has been taken hostage by a cult of personality that has said straight up he doesn't believe in the Constitution. And we have a Congress that isn't doing a damn thing about it.

We have a judiciary that's basically said the president can do anything he wants in office and it's not a crime. And so the president is doing everything in office that is a crime like fluctuating the market and insider trading making billions of dollars. This is what you would be dying for if you joined the military today. So my answer today to anybody saying would you advise anybody to join the military?

I say hell no. Hell no. This isn't a country worth dying for today. It's not.

And until we fix this country and that needs to be our number one priority, I wouldn't advise dying for this country. And I would advise everybody on the Abraham Lincoln, the George Washington, every ship out there that when your enlistment expires, get the hell out. And I would advise everybody thinking about joining this military to think long and hard and don't because all you're going to be doing is servicing a broken society. It's not the job of the military to save America.

It's the job of the citizens to save America. And when we, the people of the United States of America, get our act together and fix this thing and make a society worth defending, then I'll say join and serve. But right now, I wouldn't die for this country. Not not for this country.

This country is broken. Yeah. Well said, Scott. Um then you know your your thoughts on right on now Iran's uh particular posture how they have been reacting.

You know Iran I believe it was Archi who said you know they didn't really have any plans to assassinate Donald Trump because Trump is already uh killing the United States. There was no almost like the do nothing and win mentality weapon that Iran has [laughter] just let him be Trump. So your thoughts on on Iran's posture right now because they're saying they're just going to keep going that they haven't met their ultimate objective anyway. Uh they're not even talking about any kind ofou talks anything like this.

Uh things have really and this is now reflected in the oil prices. We see those either staying steady or ticking up and up and up. Uh so and not not to mention the fact that perhaps as you said broken society, broken military, you have also in the United States every single month more and more people dis have disdain for this war don't think it's worth fighting that there are no objectives that the United States is actually going to meet in it. So your thoughts on Iran's position given these factors on the ground?

Well, first of all, we we just have to just be again honest. Iran didn't start this war. And if you want to get into it, Iran was actually doing everything possible to avoid this war. You know, Donald Trump had articulated Iran's nuclear program as being a threat worthy of war.

Um, but at the time, see, in order for a threat to be imminent, it means that no steps can be taken to remove the risk of conflict uh the the threat. But we were actually actively negotiating with the Iranians. And indeed on February 27th, we had a deal that was in the hands of the Omani foreign minister who was flying to the United States to finalize the deal which would have resolved all of the outstanding issues regarding Iran's nuclear program which Trump said represented the existential threat worthy of war. So there was no imminent threat when we launched a surprise attack, which means we committed an act of perity.

Um, and the reason why I want to bring this up is not only did Iran not start this war, but the way this war started was, you know, an act of of infamy carried out by the United States. Uh, again, look at the history of the United States. December 7th, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, according to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Japanese launch a surprise attack against the American fleet in Pearl Harbor. A surprise attack.

And we called it an act of cowardism. It is. And the same thing when they attacked us in the Philippines and elsewhere. Um, we did this.

Now, we know here we are a nation that was raised I was raised with the notion that what the Japanese did on de Sep or December 11th was or December 7th was a horrible thing. Um, I lived in Hawaii. I went to the Pearl Harbor memorial and uh it resonates with me. So now my country has become that which we have which we have condemned, despised.

Uh, we are a nation that carries out surprise attacks using diplomacy as a as a cover act of perity. Um and and so the reason why I bring this up is that, you know, Iran is the wrong party, the agrieved party here. Um the good news for Iran is that they sort of knew this was coming. They expected this.

Uh and they had prepared for it 41 minutesand they were better prepared for war than we were, the United States and Iran prevailed in this conflict. The Iranian position now is that they u that this has to end now. This can't be something that is sustainable. They can't allow a repetition where the United States simply comes back in 5 years and bombs the the next supreme leader and kills them and and rolls in with a bombing campaign.

U Iran is saying this is over now. Now that the United States has taken this to an existential level. Then Iran is saying we're all in. They've pushed all the chips in.

We're all in. You know, Trump can sit there and go, you know, call, pass, fold. Iran's all in. Uh that's it.

this is the only hand that's going to be played and Iran's holding, you know, a [clears throat] straight flush. Um, ace high. So, it's it's over. Uh, they're they're going to ride this thing out now.

They're not they're not going to commit suicide. They're not stupid. Um, as you as we sort of joke, but it's it's the truth. The best weapon Iran has is Donald Trump, which is why Iran just said, "We're not going to talk to Donald Trump.

We're going to let this weapon of mass destruction uh loose on the people of the United States for two more years and on the world for two more years and we're just going to sit back and say screw you. Do what you need to do. We're done. We're not playing this game anymore.

Um because the problem is the United States. Iran needs the United States out of the Middle East. The United States is a cancer in the Middle East or it's, you know, a subset of the greater cancer which is Israel. Um, but Iran wants the United States out and is not going to accept anything other than that and Iran's holding all the cards, which is why we have a situation today where the president is desperately looking for an off-ramp.

Um, you know, this whole thing about the the the the steel wall that he talks about, the blockade, there is no steel wall. Understand that. people, please look at a map of the um Arabian Sea. Um and um imagine 16 ships on picket duty.

What's their span of control? Even if you put give them helicopters doing patrolling and you have other airplanes, how can 16 ships represent a steel wall? They can't. Um especially when they get close to the Iranian shore, the Iranian ships will sink them.

So they have to stay away from the Iranian shore which creates a giant buffer zone where ships can skirt the coastline and get past the steel wall. So um there it is. I mean just imagine that. Take a look at you know right up there where the street Yeah.

It's vast. I mean that is so you know what they're saying is you know I can't I mean it's hard to point but you see where Oman is. Um, and you go, you know, off that little tip of Munan up to the border of uh Iran and Pakistan right there. And uh, you know, that that would be an area where you you could say, okay, you have a steel wall there.

But now understand that Iran has missiles that will project, you know, deep into that. So our our our steel wall is only halfway up there. And and as it gets closer, it's not really half. It's sort of maneuvering because you can't stay still because the drones will come and get you.

So there's a half of that water there is a path for shipping to bypass. So you get through the straight or moves, you hug the coast of Iran and next thing you know you're in Pakistan offloading a port or making a swing around India going to China. Um we don't have a steal anything. Uh this is this is the reality.

But the president can sell this to an American public. This is dumber and dirt and uh they'll buy it. Um and so that's what the president does. " Now, that's a lie, but the American people aren't smart enough to recognize the lie.

So, he can solve the straight hormuz problem. Who controls the straight ruse? He'll tell the American people, I control it. And u therefore, I can walk away as long as I got my blockade in place.

The Iranians are like, "Well, your blockade sucks, so keep it in place. We'll keep doing what we do. " Um, you know, so you can claim you won. We know that you didn't and we'll just keep doing it to survive it.

On the nuclear thing, the president was kept saying, you know, you gota you got to give me everything. I got to control it all. And the Iranians kept saying, pound sand. And now the president has come to the mind where somebody came to him and said, hey, just say you won.

Stop talking about the need to get American hands on the nuclear dust. The following should come from your lips. I have destroyed the totality of the Iranian nuclear program. I, Donald J.

Trump, through midnight hammer and other military actions, I am the greatest leader the world has ever seen. I command the most powerful military the world has ever seen. And my magnificent bombers with their massive forces have destroyed the com and completely the Iranian nuclear program. I am declaring victory and I'm going home.

And the Iranians will be like, "Okay, we don't care. You could say anything you want to say. " And I think that's the direction we're heading right now. um where the president is going to declare victory in the straight hormuz by this you know imaginary steel wall and he'll say that the uh nuclear program has been annihilated and that uh there's no need to go forward um and he'll he'll leave and that's the status quo we'll have for two years and uh eventually what's going to happen is um nobody's going to give a damn the US Navy will come home because we can't maintain I just again hate to you know give war stories and things like this.

When I was a weapons inspector in Iraq, uh you know, we we served uh you know, for the pleasure of the security council, security council resolution 687, the chapter 7 resolution, which means military force was authorized to be used if the Iraqis didn't comply. And I know that for instance, in February, March of 1992, um I took an inspect in March, I took an inspection into Iraq that we thought we were all going to be taken hostage because we were confronting Iraqi lies. and the US Navy surged aircraft carriers and everything into the Persian Gulf and we were ready to go to war and the the Iraqis saw the light and uh cooperated and the fleet went home. Uh in the summer of 1992 uh we had a crisis at the agricultural ministry where we surrounded what we believed to be the archives of the weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraqis surrounded us. We had violent confrontations. The fleet surged back in. Aircraft surged back in.

the the the Iraqis backed down. The fleet went home. Um in the fall of 1992, the fleet came back. Boom.

Came home in 93. The fleet came in. The fleet came back. And eventually the the the military went, we can't do this anymore.

This is too damn expensive. We, you know, when we surge a fleet forward, it's ready for combat. That costs a lot of money. When we bring it back, all these things go away.

We have to redo it. So, we're spending billions of dollars going through a cycle that uh never achieves decisive moment. The right now we have no operational budget anymore. We've blown through our operational budget.

This is why the Pentagon's asking for $350 billion more because of this war. Right now, we have units that aren't training because the training money is being allocated to, you know, keeping these forces deployed. This is an unsustainable model. Pete Hgsth should be fired for what he's doing here.

Unsustainable model. We have to get these ships home and we have to get back to you know what passes for normaly and uh because you know that's that's how we afford it. We don't this is why we have such a high defense budget because we wasted on stupid things like this. Uh this is an unsustainable model.

So eventually, I would imagine that sometime after the midterm elections when the president doesn't have to keep the um pretense of victory up, uh the Navy will just quietly come home and one day we'll wake up and there's no more steel wall and nobody will care. Nobody will care because it never really mattered to begin with. Um and the Iranians will just keep doing what they do, strengthening their ties and eventually United States will just quietly leave the Persian Gulf. And I think that's what you're going to see.

It's just going to be one of these things that just Look, how many people understand that right now um the American military is withdrawing completely from Iraq on September 30th. It hasn't been [clears throat] broadcast everywhere. Not, you know, most Americans are like, "No, no, we got Americans there. We got Americans up there in Urbil and Kurdistan.

" On September 30th, every American soldier in Iraq is leaving. Is gone. Finished. It's just happening.

We're already out of Syria. How many Americans know that? We're out. Finished.

Goodbye. We didn't have a big ceremony. It just happened. And one day, we're going to wake up and we're going to be out of the Persian Gulf.

Gone. We're not going back to Bahrain. We're not going back to Kuwait. We're not going back to Qatar, United Arab Emirates.

We're leaving. And this is going to quietly happen. And that's what Iran wants. Iran doesn't need to have a, you know, an in-your-face moment.

Iran just needs the results and this is what Iran's going to get. Yeah. Yeah. And uh what's quite stunning about what you're saying, Scott, is that uh what what's so interesting is Trump has and the United States has throughout this entire war, throughout all the blunders and all the setbacks and all the the losses, the defeats, the and how all of it's come out.

Throughout the whole time, there has been a discontinuity even in just the messaging of explaining the war, why the United States is in this war when what you just said as the possible offramp could have been the narrative from the start to the f to the start to the end and made this process seemingly even that much more easy. Now, what you're suggesting is a lot more difficult in the sense that uh uh there are a lot of uh holes of history that can be shot through. And it seems that there are still forces inside of Washington that surround Trump uh maybe even Trump himself in his very uh deranged mind that keep the door open to some kind of renewed hostilities which to me and to a lot of our audience would be seeming really stupid and counterproductive and probably will only uh get the United States further into trouble but nevertheless uh there are holes and so I'm wondering what you think about that in terms of how this this uh off-ramp which is obviously so needed uh will run into any kind of trouble in the coming days and weeks. The problem is the people that are advocating for a continuation of this conflict mainly the pro-Israeli crowd because Israel you know sort of feel sorry for the Israelis.

Not really but I mean just think about it. They they spent decades trying to get an American president to go to war with Iran. you know, decades and they finally found one dumb enough to do it. And um and it didn't work [laughter] and and now now he's going to leave and they're never going to get an American president go to war around with again.

Uh it's over. The door is closed on this thing. So they're desperate to keep uh Trump actively engaged in Iran. They're desperate to do this.

Um and so that desperation now because they own Congress and they they own the Trump inner circle, you know, they're going to keep doing this stuff. The the problem is the people that count. Um remember Donald Trump disregarded the advice of his secretary of state. Uh he disregarded the advice of the CIA director uh the secretary of treasury um and others um regarding starting this war with uh Iran.

Uh the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, they all said bad idea. Don't do it. Uh only Pete Hegth, who um you know, I don't know what substance he was under was like we got this one boss, we can do this. I can bress 315 pounds.

I can kill Iranians. You know, and the president went, "Oh, good. " Go. Well, it failed.

So, HGith has zero credibility. He the president's called him out for his lies about munition stockpiles and and things of that nature. As we speak, General Kaine's telling the president, "We can't do this. I don't know what you think you want to do, but we can't do it.

" Um, Marco Rubio saying, "We lost everybody in the Persian Gulf. " Saudi Arabian saying hell no. Kuwait saying hell no. Bar we're not going to be able to use any of their bases.

You got to fly out of Jordan, which complicates things now because the Iranians have missiles that can defeat our missile system. Everything's going to be concentrated Jordan. And uh it isn't going to work, Mr. President.

Um Secretary Treasurer is like, you know, none of this will work. And so [laughter] the CIA director, same thing. We're not going to be able to overthrow the the government right now. They've sort of rounded up all of our cells and um they're dead.

And so you have all the people that matter saying no. Now this is important because we got a midterm election coming up and you know some of these people can be hauled before Congress and uh and asked questions. So the president can't just be dismissive of the uh advice of his inner circle right now. And I'm not talking about the inner inner circle, you know, the uh the insanity of uh you know Steve Miller or uh Sebastian Gorka.

Why is Sebastian Gorko allowed anywhere near the president? I don't know. But um you know these guys are there but the the people that count the big boys they're saying no and the president can't um you know can't can't go against them. So I I I think that we're in a situation right now where this uh you know there's not there's nothing the United States can do right now.

Um there there there's no chance for him to go to war. " But the American defense industry is so dysfunctional that even if you pour all the money in that you're talking about pouring in, you're not going to get these weapons for years, for years. So, and by then, we should have a change in political leadership and hopefully one that goes back to saying, uh, going to war against Iran's a really bad thing. Indeed.

Well, Scott, uh, it was a great show today. com, your website, and Substack are in the video description below where they can support you. I'll pull up one. Uh, there was one question from super chats and I'll pull up the rest of the super chats as you talk about it quickly.

Um, oh, this is another question. Wow. Okay, so there are two questions. Uh, Black Sea, will Turkey get involved against Russia, especially Odessa?

Will they blockade Russia? [laughter] No, not on your life. Turkey might get involved uh diplomatically, but um again, I just want to remind people that a blockade is an act of war. Um and um Turkey is not going to commit an act of war against Russia.

What Turkey will try to do is negotiate some sort of um you know renewal of the um the the grain deal, you know, the the the access to the Black Sea uh ports and all that, but Russia's done with that. Uh and Turkeykey's got no cards to to play on this one. So, no, Turkeyy's not they'll they'll sit there and talk and all this stuff, but they're not going to do anything about it. Yes.

Uh thanks, Scott. And then, uh one last question. " They do actually. They have uh they have um you know facilities in um the major cities.

Moscow has a big one. St. Petersburg has a big one, but every military district has military hospitals that take care of the uh the wounded. And my understanding is that the uh the health care um you know, at least the immediate healthc care is pretty good.

Russia has to wake up to uh when I was there in u August of last year, I talked to a veteran of the Afghan war and um he said, you know, they did a really horrible job uh taking care of the Afghan veterans. They were sort of forgotten uh people, especially when the Soviet Union went away because the Afghan veterans were Soviet soldiers. And now Russia was like, "That's not our war. " But then they had the old Chetchin conflict and they didn't do a good job with the Chetchin guys and it creates, you know, dissension.

But both wars are relatively small compared to what's going on in Ukraine right now. In Ukraine, you have a significant number of um of wounded that need help and a significant number of people who have served and Vladimir Putin has gone out of his way to say that those who served in the special military operation are the future of Russia. of it. So there's a political empowerment for veterans and I think you're going to see that Russia is going to do a better job of taking care of their veterans than they ever than Russia ever has done in the past.

U except for after World War II. I mean the veterans were very revered. Uh but you know and I also think the Russians will do a hell of a lot better job taking care of their veterans than we will taking care of ours. That's one of the saddest things we can get back to Abraham Lincoln.

you know, these these people coming off these deployments um you know, they're they're not going to adjust well to society. They're not. And um they're not gonna there's no normal for them to get back to. And many of them are going to fall victim of alcoholism or drug addiction.

Um they're going to lose jobs. Families are going to abandon them and they're end up on the streets. When I was a firefighter here with Delmare, uh I drove the ambulance um you know, when I wasn't doing firefighting. And uh you know every winter we we'd go out we had frequent flyers the uh the Vietnam veterans who were homeless and you just pick them up freezing on the street.

You take them to the VA hospital where they thaw them out, get a hot meal in them, then they have to release them and then next thing you know two weeks later we're picking them up and you keep picking them up until one day you show up and they're dead. Um and that's how we take care of our Vietnam War veterans. Um it's it's just sickening. And uh we're doing the same to these Gulf War veterans, to these uh war on terror veterans.

You know, after 911, everybody, you know, oh, God bless our troops. We love our troops. Well, then we found out about, you know, improv improvised explosive devices, IEDs, and things called tmi, traumatic or tbi, traumatic brain injuries. And um and suddenly the veterans became inconvenient because see the veteran be sitting there at the bar staring at his beer, not blinking.

And uh you want to come up and say, "How many guys you kill? " And he just staring because he's broken. He's done. And uh and then he stumbles out.

Nobody follows. Nobody asks, "Hey, are you okay? Can I talk to you? Let's have a conversation.

Uh what do you need? Uh you know, can can I get you a place to sleep? Can I You know, we just abandon these guys. And these are young kids now that are just going through society, disappearing in society.

We we're a disgrace. This is another reason why I would say don't join the military because your your country doesn't appreciate you. Your country mocks you behind your back. Many of them uh and the ones that claim to support you won't.

Ask yourself who's going to change your colosy bag when you come back. Because this is what going to happen to you guys. You're going to go out there, you're gonna get gutshot. It's going to go right through your spine.

So, you're going to be stuck in a chair and um you're going to be pooping into a bag and uh peeing into a bag. And who's going to change it? Ask yourself that. And if you can't answer that question, um don't join the military because you know who's going to be changing your classroom bag?

Nobody. Except you. And you're going to it up. Next thing you know, you're going to have a pile of on the floor and that's your life.

Don't join the military. On that note, Scott, uh, everybody hit the like button. Make sure you do that because that helps boost the show after we are done here. com.

His substack is in the video description below where you can support all of his work and find all of his work as well. In the video description also, you can find all the places support this show, Patreon, Substack, and much more. There is also thank you all of to all the members and all the super chats and to everyone who moderated today and everyone who viewed. Scott, any final thoughts before I hit endstream here?

No, just thanks for the support. I would ask people to go to my Substack and uh you know read what I post there and um if you can support, subscribe with a paid subscription or donate. I got a trip coming up at the end of September. Um and I'm still uh in need of uh of some funds to help make that trip happen.

So, uh, any any support would be great, greatly appreciated. Yes. Great. Well, everyone, you heard him.

Video description below after you hit that like button. m. Eastern time, I'm back with Alistair Crook. So, catch you tomorrow morning.

All right. m. I'll see you then. Until next time.

Bye-bye.

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Thousands Of U.S Troops DEAD': Former U.S Marine Reveals REAL U.S. Casualty Numbers in Iran War
Oneindia News
Aug 10, 2026

A former U.S. Marine is making explosive claims about the true human cost of the conflict, arguing that the real U.S. casualty numbers could be far higher than publicly acknowledged—potentially reaching hundreds or even thousands. Ken O'Keefe has also delivered a blunt message to Donald Trump, declaring “STOP DYING FOR ISRAEL” and accusing the Trump administration of misleading the American public.

His comments are fueling a heated debate over U.S. military involvement, casualty figures, government transparency, and America’s relationship with Israel. Are the publicly reported numbers telling the full story, or is there more being kept from the public?



Transcript Search transcript Search transcript as a marine who has been deployed to foreign lands and based on ships and so on and so forth. It's in the hundreds. I believe the numbers are in the hundreds and possibly even a thousand. And if they're not those numbers yet, they're going to be much bigger than those numbers.

Aloha from Tehran. You know, I just wanted to share some thoughts here. Number one, I know that they're lying about the death count of American service members. There is no doubt of this.

The figures of Americans now dead. It's impossible to know the actual number, but my guess is uh based on empirical evidence, eyewitness accounts, uh military uh experts, and just an overall understanding developed as a Marine who has been deployed to foreign lands and based on ships and so on and so forth. It's in the hundreds. I believe the numbers are in the hundreds and possibly even a thousand.

And if they're not those numbers yet, they're going to be much bigger than those numbers. So, this is number one. You know, I burned my passport in Baghdad 22 years ago with a sign saying, "Support your troops. " Why would I do that if I hate America?

that I don't want you to die for the Jewish state of Israel. And the fact that many Americans are learning to dislike the Jewish state. I'm telling you one more thing that none of the experts even the ones that I respect massively honestly many good commentators are all getting it wrong on this one thing that they're not telling you. These policies being carried out by Donald J.

Trump. These policies are not the folly of a narcissistic, horrendous, horrible, ghastly representative of America known as Donald Trump. It isn't that he is the egotistical narcissist on steroids that is behind the insanity and stupidity and the cannon fodder reality of sacrificing American sons mostly but daughters as well. Here's the truth.

It isn't him or his delusions or his ignorance or any of that. It is because the chosen ones have decided long ago that once America served its purpose as a goyam slave state that after America was done serving its purpose to die for the chosen ones that then America your beloved America would have to be sacrificed. Yes, your nation is being bled dry, flushed down the toilet purposely, willfully so that Pax Americana can be replaced by Pax Judea, greater Israel. I have been saying this for decades, but now it's reality.

So just know that as the entire economy of the world sits on the precipice of a cliff and falls off the edge resulting in the death of millions, tens of millions, literally willfully chosen by the chosen ones. They will die of starvation and related diseases from the lack of clean drinking water, the ability to grow food and all of the things that will come from this 1929 crash on steroids here in 2026. The chosen ones own Donald J. Trump and my birth nation and they are setting in the light and setting up the stage for a civil war and an anarchy.

Here is my advice to you, America, since you did not listen for all this time that I have been shouting from the rooftops. Maintain the republic. Maintain the Constitution. Arrest the traitors now and put them on trial with due process of law for treason.

And then let us celebrate their convictions. And hanging according to the law, I swore an oath to protect and defend. I say this from Iran because Iran is against the Epstein class. It is against the Jewish state of Israel and has supported the Palestinian people which have been Makum, my adopted family.

That is why I'm here. This country is on the side of God. I am on the side of God. And I pray that my birth nation finds the way of God, truth and justice.

Subscribe to One [music] India and never miss an update. Download the One India app now. [music]

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Larry Johnson: Trump in PANIC as USS Lincoln COVER UP Backfires, Iran DESTROYS US Navy
Danny Haiphong
Aug 16, 2026 #iran #usslincoln #usnavy

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson discusses a bombshell revelation of direct evidence that the US Navy hiding the truth about the crisis of the USS Lincoln and what it means for Trump’s war on Iran.



Transcript

Welcome back. As you can see, former CI analyst Larry Johnson is with me to break down the latest developments. Now, Larry, I wanted to get right to it and show you this tweet by Sentcom. Now, the USS Lincoln is going to be replaced by the USS George Washington after all of the reports in the mainstream media, in the military times about how horrendous the conditions were on the USS Lincoln.

you covered that here on this program. So, people should check that out after the show on our last live program. But here's what Senscom said. USS Abraham Lincoln has maintained among the highest crew crew in reinlistments of all aircraft carriers on the US Navy.

5 million pounds of ordinance expended. No service members aboard have died. and one sailor fell over who fell overboard August 3rd was quickly and safely recovered. So this is all being framed as fake news.

Uh what's been reported about the USS Lincoln and this comes amid a larger exhaustion not just in the morale of sailors and US personnel but also in military hardware. Larry, so talk about what what do you make of this response by Senscom? This so-called fact check. They even had to admit that somebody did go overboard.

Of course, they didn't say why or how. Yeah, he slept he slept. He slept. He was He slipped off that big city.

That big city in the water, but uh uh Larry, your thoughts on this? It's It's a lie. Look, um I'm in I'm in contact now. I I I've been I've had three different mothers.

uh mothers of two sailors and the mother of a marine. They've been on different ships. Um one was on the Tripoli, one was on the Lincoln, one was on the Boxer. They're all telling the same story.

This isn't confined to this ship. This is a problem throughout the Navy. And um and for for Sentcom basically, oh no, this is fake news. My ass is fake news.

The the only fake news here are the denials by Sentcom that oh everything's great, morale couldn't be better. It's just the opposite. Uh and you know the look soldiers, sailors, marines, they complain, you know, enlisted personnel that's you know comes with the territory. We're talking about something different here.

And this is not confined to the Navy. This is a this is throughout the military. The uh after 25 years of fighting quote wars on terror and uh and and multiple operational deployments, combat deployments. The we have we have stressed our military to the breaking point.

the there are some irrefutable facts that Sentcom ought to be, you know, smashed in the face with. One, since 2001, uh there have been 147,000 now approaching 148,000 deaths from among soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen at for suicide. That is a larger number than the combined deaths from Vietnam, the Korean conflict, and all the other shitty little wars the United States has been engaged in since we left Vietnam in 1975. So, think about that.

In fact, we've got more people uh the the number that have died that suicide. This is larger than the number that died in the European theater for the United States, Europe, and North Africa in World War II. Think about that. So, this is this is a significant number of casualties.

And yet, they want to pretend that this is nothing. This is fake news. Uh so last November, November 25th, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who himself is a former Army Ranger, he issued orders to all officers and non-commissioned officers, you know, sergeants, [snorts] that they were to do daily checks, not once in a while checks, daily checks on the soldiers under their command. So that would mean like in a company of 150 soldiers.

Uh let's say that that 5 minutescompany is divided into uh four uh let's say uh five platoon and 30 soldiers per platoon. So that meant each platoon's so it was the the uh sergeant major's job to oversee each of the staff sergeants job and each of those platoon and each of the staff sergeants had to go out and make sure that the privates and corporals under their command weren't killing themselves. They issued an order to that effect. You wouldn't issue an order to that effect if it wasn't a problem.

Cyber Command uh just acknowledged or was outed as having had several I think five to six suicides in one month among its personnel. And we're not talking about kids that are out on the front line shooting people in the head. We're talking about kids get to sit in Barka loungers with joysticks and fly drones or sit in front of computers. But you've had suicides there.

" And he he said he guarantees that the number on the Abraham Lincoln thinking about committing suicide or you know it wasn't six it was more like 30 or potentially even 60 much higher number. So the US military has throughout a a problem of morale. It it stems from lack of leadership and pro sending them on missions with insufficient resources. that that combination of factors have created a crisis.

7 minutesAnd Larry, [snorts] what you just uh said there is also verified by others who have been in touch as well with families. And here is one message which says that uh my brother and fiance are both in the Navy and I can confirm what you have been hearing. Aaron is another reporter. His fiance is on the George W.

Bush, HW Bush, not the Lincoln, and was recently back in the US for a family emergency. So, we're able to talk to her. She told us how they virtually have no food, water, or soap. They may not seat 136 days with no ends in sight.

Morale is low. Everyone is miserable. It's heartbreaking. Um, and this comes in the context, if you could comment on this part of it as well.

Uh, this was, uh, written in TRT, Turkish media. how the Iran war is taking a growing toll on the US military, placing these strains, exhausted troops aboard deployed warships to the mounting pressures on weapon stockpiles, missile production, and Pentagon spending, a lot of this having come to a major head during the war on Iran. Uh Larry, how big of a crisis then is the US military in especially visav this war in Iran which while some have noted that Trump may be trying to find an exit ramp and offramp certainly there are major forces both inside of Washington and of course in Tel Aviv that have other uh ideas. Yeah.

Um so the the problems you facing the US military effort in Iran, one is this morale problem, the mental health crisis problem that we just talked about. And uh there is no immediate solution to that. And the the only way they can begin to deal with it is if they acknowledge it exists. And so far the the Trump administration has been pretending that it's not a problem.

So until they come to grips with that, they won't address it. Then you've got the weapon shortage problem. So 78% of US Department of Defense weapons are rely for fashion on five four rare earths and another metal called tungsten. So without those uh without those rare earth minerals and that tungsten, those weapon systems don't get produced.

And who controls that supply chain of those four plus tungsten? China. And China has cut the United States off. So now the United States is giving orders to all these defense contractors to uh pony up um new weapons, increase production, and they're giving them more money, but they can't produce it.

Just like if you know if I if I told you, hey, I'm going to I'm going to give you, you know, normally you'd make $1,000 for making a a birthday cake. Danny, I'm going to give you I'm going to give you $10,000. The only problem is you don't have access to flour, sugar, or eggs. And without flour, sugar, eggs, you ain't making a cake.

So that's what they've they're asking Lucky Martin to boost production of Patriots pack three missiles. There are two critical rare earth minerals that are involved with magnets that are critical to the guidance system that China holds controls 99% of it. So Loheed Martin can't get it and they won't be producing that. Yeah, that is uh that's that's incredibly dire.

And and then on the Iranian side, maybe you can help understand there have been so many announcements from Iran. It's actually quite astounding uh when one puts it into perspective. The first being that Iran has upgraded all of its missile stocks, every one of its versions of its missiles with the ability to evade air defense in particular at a a very uh low trajectory. Meaning that as it's about to uh strike, it changes trajectory.

in a rapid fashion. Could you explain how they did this and also at the same time that they announced this, they also said uh according to their commander uh Mr. Nakti, he said that they have produced more missiles uh over the course of this war now than they have fired, which is uh shocking Israel especially as Tel Aviv uh through the Jerusalem Post noted. So your thoughts on all this?

How how did Iran do this? And uh is this part of some kind of incredible miscalculation on the part of the US and Israel? Well, let's start with your last question. Yes.

Uh it's an int intelligence failure. So back in 2003, uh Iran took the decision based upon watching what the United States was doing in Iraq that you know what, we're going to have to put our missiles or drones, you know, drones weren't a big thing then, but we're going to have to put our military u facilities underground. Otherwise, if they're above ground, they're easy targets for the United States, and the United States can destroy them, and then we're out of luck. So they embarked upon a massive construction campaign that was shifting above ground factories and missile factories in particular.

But you know this also applied to the nuclear industry to shift it all underground and make it uh you know basically protect it against nuclear blast and make it very difficult to attack. And that's exactly what they've done. So now they're, you know, they're able and they were able to during the entire, you know, start of the war on February 28th, uh, during the first six weeks of that war, they were able to continue producing missiles underground. And then they didn't have to worry about bringing the missiles above ground to fire because they could fire them from underground from hidden hidden uh, tunnels um, or hidden silos.

So the, you know, Iran, uh, as the Israeli intelligence acknowledged, they they're rebuilding and they're going to, I think even Israel is missing. They they say they'll be back to the strength they were prior to February 28th by next year. They may be back there already or maybe by November at the latest. So, um, Iran is militarily equipped and capable of retaliating against anything that the Israelis or the United States decide to launch.

Yeah. Well, uh I wanted your assessment of you know Iran has also mentioned that they are going on a kind of offensive now toward the United States in order to get what they have demanded from the US uh in particular in the signed agreement that theou which both sides are supposed to be abiding by at the moment uh but one the United States is not. Now uh there have been reports that Iran says that they could take this directly to the enemy meaning even on US soil. What could be even meant by that?

Because of course the US loves to portray Iran as some kind of terrorist, a terror nation, one that uh you know Trump says it all the time, right? 47 years and all these various events, these terrorist attacks. It's all Iran. It's all Iran even though all of it is not Iran.

Yet Iran is also saying that they have the capabilities of engaging in warfare that will directly hit the United States. What is what is being meant by this if if not falling into the Trumpestablishment narrative? Well, I actually I don't think it dealt with actual attacks on US soil in the, you know, continental United States. Um, [clears throat] I think the Iranians were referring to, at least when I heard Nakti, General Nakti say, uh, US economic interests in the region.

So, I think they'd be targeting because I think, you know, Iran does not have cannot easily reach out and attack the United States. Uh that that's one of the problems with or one of the benefits the United States has is its geographic location makes it difficult to attack. The only way it'd be easy to attack is if Canada and Mexico fell under the complete control of the government that wanted to attack us or if they decided to start attacking us. So, uh, Iran's recognizing it can hurt US economic interests around the globe.

It's much easier for them to hit the US and Asia and Africa, uh, than worrying about crossing the Pacific to get to, say, San Francisco or Oregon or Washington, right? Yeah. , which uh Iran was very methodical about uh addressing now and hitting during those 40 days of hostilities. uh causing major damage but at the same time leaving a lot open and left for uh potential future escalation should it need it.

Now uh Larry talk about Iran's global role. It's about to join the new development bank. Many are talking about Iran as a rising superpower, a regional power, a a fourth superpower as Robert Pape, Professor Pape has said. But uh maybe you can help understand uh just how how much more powerful is Iran now than it was before the war on this global stage because this seems to be the big uh elephant in the room that the United States is not addressing.

Yeah. Uh well, Iran previously was [clears throat] isolated. If you go back with the signing of the JCPOA in 2015, um both Russia and China agreed with West, you know, the England, France, Germany, and the United States that uh sanctions should be levied on Iran to make sure that it complied with the limitations on its nuclear program. Where are we today?

Today, Russia and China, they've said with respect to continuing sanctions on Iran, not going to happen. No, we're done. And they they are openly trading and dealing. They've brought Iran directly into bricks.

Iran is a full member of bricks and an active participant. And then on top of it, Iran is no longer cut off economically like it was previously. Uh is it's able to receive goods. Even if the United States has the coast of Iran 100% blockaded, there is Pakistan and the border shared border which six trade routes over that border into uh Iran.

Uh plus Iran is no longer dealing in US dollars. So they are moving all their commercial activities out of the realm of the US dollar into the realm of uh rembi the Chinese currency as well as dealing with you know if they sell to the Russians they tra exchange rubles for their currency. So they are move they're they're moving towards more independence not more dependence. Yeah.

And uh how then does this also translate to uh you know Iran's capabilities of uh beating this economic war which the United States says now is the focus. Uh you probably saw JD Vance [clears throat] say that the number one priority is getting oil prices down not going very well but that's number one priority according to JD Vance. And number two is of course the whole nuclear deal fiasco which seems to be incredibly out of sight and uh really out of reality when it comes to the actual situation in the war. So how has Iran then been able to weather this storm?

Because uh you know while sanctions this blockade obviously have some impact it obviously not only has it not been enough to affect the Iranian political situation but Iran is becoming even more bold in what kinds of actions it takes to uh achieve its own objectives. " You know, just symbolic. Um, and he's ignoring the fact that Iran's economy is becoming less integrated with the West, not more integrated with the West. Now, they may try to punish any country that deals has dealings with Iran and you know the principal ones of that will be Russia and China and they'll say, you know, they'll tell the United States to kindly off.

So, uh, this is this is desperation mode on the part of the United States with this kind of statement by Bessant. You know, they're they're really eager to get the pressure. The reality, you know, they it was telling that they brought out, hey, gas and diesel. Well, wait a second.

You've been saying the straight of Hormuz is open. You've been saying you've been bringing out almost uh 75 80% of the oil that used to flow through there. So, what's the problem? Why the shortage?

Well, it's because they're lying. It's because the shortages are real. The the the drop off in supply out of the Persian Gulf is significant. You know, previously it accounted for, depending on who which data source you're looking at, 20 to 25% of the global supply and only a fraction of that has come back online.

if that. So the you've got right now a global shortage of diesel and aviation fuel and that's not going away anytime soon. That is going to get worse and worse. Particularly, it looks like the oil that they were counting on uh from Venezuela is not materializing.

And Canada, who used to be a major supplier of the sour crude that is needed to produce diesel and aviation fuel, Canada's telling the United States to screw off. It's going to start selling the to China. So, United States is we're we're living on the edge of a major major energy and financial crisis. Yeah.

And uh you know all of this seems to point to uh a deep and desperate need for the United States to cease uh this uh war on Iran. But yet we had reports from uh you know coming out of Israel channel 13 saying that Bradley Cooper Sentcom's top man uh top general said that he wants to push and urge Washington to approve of meaning the Trump administration approve of strikes on Iranian energy and infrastructure again. " What's going on here? Is the United States really preparing to escalate once again despite all of the myriad of problems you just outlined from the beginning of this program?

Jesus. It looks like we're watching that Saturday Night Live skit with Will Frell and Christopher Walkan, you know, where uh the Freer was pretending to be a member of Blue Oyster Cult and they're playing and he keeps he's playing the cowbell and walking keeps walking out going more cowbell. That's what we more cowbell. So Bradley Cooper now is Christopher Walkan calling for more cowbell.

So let's let's sit back and look at the what has happened. The first six weeks of the war were an intensive campaign of missile and bomb strikes uh cruise missiles, tomahawks, jasms as well as JDAMs uh in in in Iran and after six weeks called a ceasefire in part because we were running out of missiles. Then uh June or somewhere early July uh Trump declared theou dead and the ceasefire over and the United States recommenced three weeks of bombing in the Persian Gulf to degrade Isra's ability to block the straight of Hermoose failed. And again, the US called called it off because the the shortage of offensive weapons had gotten even worse.

And so now he wants he thinks in another two weeks that's going to tip the scale. these these people around Cooper need to step back and and consult uh the the analysts at you European Command Yukon and get them to provide a briefing on the amount of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, artillery, and glide bombs that Russia has dropped on Ukraine over the last four and a half years. The the number it just it it is so in excess of what the United States has done to Iran. It's not even, you know, it's not even in the realm of comparison.

And let's remember that Ukraine is onethird the size of Iran. So if the Russians can unleash this massive, massive, unrelenting campaign of missiles and drones and glide bombs, etc. And that didn't force Ukraine to collapse. What in the hell are they thinking that a two week campaign is going to force Iran to go, "Oh, stop.

" Oh my god. just I mean the stupidity on this is incredible. Yeah, it certainly is uh incredible and uh I you know I wanted your take then also on the Israeli role in this now uh given that it's Israeli media that's often leaking either it's leaking exactly what Bradley Cooper said or making it up alto together. It all comes as there was a major scandal uh that now has taken u much attention from uh the mainstream 27 minutesmedia even where Trump was paraded out uh in a catering cart to a another plane at the NATO summit, leaving the NATO summit using White House personnel uh his own administration and journalists, presser uh you know the press corps that followed him there as a decoy for some Iranian plot that uh uh the CIA was told by Israelis was going to happen with some ragtag cell in Turkey armed with man pads was going to fire at his jet and take him out.

That was the story. And now it's all being revealed that uh the Israeli intelligence even from the CIA perspective was worthless. Essentially had no basis in reality. yet they still went along with it, Larry.

So, I'm What do you make of the Israeli role in all of this? Because it appears that their stamp is on it no matter what role they're playing, whether it's a leadership role or just a cooperation role or or maybe a leading role. Your thoughts? Yeah.

No, they figured out one way to try to get Trump to act against Israel is convince to act against Iran. Convince Trump that uh Iran is trying to assassinate him. What a coward. Donald Trump is a bonafide coward because they they quote face this threat.

Well, okay. Number one, if I'm the head of the Secret Service delegation and we get this intel, okay, there's some uh some guy's going to try to launch a surfaceto-air missile uh against the aircraft as it takes off. You number one, you immediately get in touch with the Turkish security service. Okay, guys.

We need to establish a perimeter at outside uh the airport. Uh and you you be in and that perimeter you go within it and patrol. You find out is there anybody standing around with a surface air missile. So there's a way that you could have secured the takeoff route against such a missile.

Plus the plane is supposed to have uh counter measures on board. It can shoot off chaff and other things to distract a surface there or missile particularly one that's heat seeking. U but you know the other thing that makes this sort of ridiculous uh is uh the yeah the engines are have they've heated up at takeoff but they're not nearly as hot. They don't give off the same heat signature that they do when they're landing because they've been flying for a while and that heat builds up over time even though it's passing through cold air.

So trying to you know down a plane on takeoff is sort of a you know not a impossible mission but it's just not optimal. You know there's a lot of things they could have done from a security standpoint to secure it. They didn't do it. And so you got to ask why.

And then as you said, he left uh he left the rest of his um folks on board to be bait. You know, uh I don't know if you've seen one of the one of the [clears throat] spoof movies they did showed that they made made sure that Melania stayed on board. Oh, the president wants you to be here, you know, and Marco Rubio. It's just, you know, it's ridiculous.

It really is. I I always, you know, I've been saying about Trump is uh his policies are very much aligned with predecessors. Uh there really is not much deviation unless it's doing things uh more intensely, escalating things like certain kinds of wars. But ultimately you get a lot of the same more of the same from prior administrations except for the fact that you [clears throat] will get far more open humiliation as well as uh just kind of strange and uh maybe unprecedented antics which I think only magnify the crisis and also make it so uh I I think this morale crisis in the military also is reflected in the general population.

I mean, people are very sick and very tired of of the impact of this war. And now the the the top leader of the entire project, Donald Trump, is uh engaging in these humiliating acts. Uh which he doesn't in doesn't inspire confidence, you know. Not not leading from the front, not leading the charge, man.

He's hiding. Hiding hiding. Yeah. with the with the chicken pot pies.

[laughter] I just did not understand why any of that had to go down. But nevertheless, um time and money well spent, I guess. Uh Larry, now uh maybe we can, you know, spend the last bit of this program on how has this war on Iran changed the global uh geopolitical landscape. You know, I remember not too long ago, let's say the beginning of the first Trump administration after Obama, you know, there were real concerns that the United States maybe was capable of building up to war on multiple fronts.

massive buildup around Russia, massive buildup around China, and then of course in West Asia, Northern Africa, there was they were active and and relatively, you could say, effective in the sense that they got rid of Gaddafi and and made Syria almost an unlivable place to be. But now with this war on Iran and everything that happened before and up to where we are now, uh do Russia and China find themselves in particular uh more I guess assured of their own position and uh maybe have fewer concerns about the threat of the United States now than maybe in in years prior to this war. Well, I I think the combination of the attempt to open freedom of navigation in the Red Sea a year ago, June or May, by the Trump administration, continuing Biden's Operation Prosperity Guardian, and then the result of the US failed attack to destroy and collapse Iran. It's been I I call it the Wizard of Oz moment when the great and powerful Oz was revealed to be just an old itinerant drunk alcoholic preacher from Kansas.

Uh in other words, previously there was still sort of the belief I think even in Russia and China that the United States had more strategic depth, was much more formidable foe, had much more advanced technology, had some secret tricks that it could pull out of its bag. And then they watch and realize that, you know, they've watched the United States squander so-called wonder weapons in Ukraine over the past three years. And now they watched the United States basically fall on its face with respect to Iran unable, having promised protection to Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates failed to do so in every single regard. So the the situation now is, you know, the the perception of the United States as a giant, they're looking at it more like a a shriveled uh a shriveled old man that has, you know, is not quite the powerhouse that they once thought.

And now Iran says it's on the offensive and Russia has made indications that it is ready to uh move further and deeper into its campaign uh against Ukraine and NATO. Um and China seems to be sitting very pretty uh in regards to its position technologically, economically and militarily. But uh do you see these countries then uh taking an even more offensive posture in the future given that uh this might be the time to seize on uh what you just mentioned there which is the decrepit state of of the empire. Well I I don't see Iran launching any they're not going to initiate any offensive operations at this point.

I don't think so. [clears throat] Unless uh US Navy ships start coming in closer to shore and are engaged in sabotage or other activities, then yeah, those ships could be taken out. Uh but we do clearly see that uh Russia has upped its game and Putin has now put the Europeans on notice. you know, you start interfering with our ships again in the Mediterranean or in the North Atlantic, we're going to take your ships out in Asia.

And he gave those orders to the Navy, the Russian Navy just two days ago. So, and then Russia has stepped up its blockade of Odessa and Nikolia, two critical ports on the Black Sea, basically cutting off uh Ukraine's access to the Black Sea and its access to foreign imports of, you know, weapons as well as other critical items for their industry and preventing them from exporting any grain. So this is uh Russia hasn't just turned up the uh economic pressure on Ukraine. I mean it's it's gone from a small fire to a nuclear blast in terms of the kinds of intensity that they're now applying to Ukraine.

And then then what's happening on the ground militarily both in terms of missile strikes in Kev against critical logistics and manufacturing sites as well as the attacks against Ukrainian units all along the line of contact in Ukraine. Uh [clears throat] well, I'm glad you mentioned that because Sergey Lavrov uh recently told the media uh BGTRK, he said that Russia has no intentions of stopping at the current line of contact because our grandfathers fought against the Nazis and promised that they will be intensifying their methods, Russia will uh in this war. But what do you think he means by that? what what can we expect uh in you know in the now and of course the near future in this conflict as uh uh Russia intensifies and and and comes up with new methods to uh to fight this war.

Yeah, it may may up include striking targets and NATO countries where they are clearly providing uh material support to Ukraine in the terms of weapons. uh and and drones in particular. So they could do that. Uh they're [clears throat] going to put more troops into the mix, apply greater pressure all along that line of contact.

And it's important to understand while they're doing this, they're not doing human wave attacks. They continue to engage in a combination of artillery strikes, missile strikes, uh strikes with uh glide bombs. Uh then, uh then they'll do assaults. But what what they try to do is not only soften up the positions, weaken the positions of the Ukrainians, you know, by, you know, killing as many as they can before they launch their own attacks in order to minimize their own casualties.

So I I see much more of that coming. And it's going it's being done. they're able to mobilize and deploy more resources and at the same time they're going to they're going to make Kev unlivable that Zalinsky is going to be forced to by December abandon Keev and moved to the capital to Lavv. you know, Donald Trump, maybe to close, Larry, Donald Trump has about two years left in his administration, the second 40 minutesone now since 2016.

And Iran has said that they can wait him out and continue to pressure uh toward their demands that they have to uh rightfully end this war just uh with with a modicum of justice. And obviously Russia uh has abandoned and and said straight up that there was no real uh Alaska what were they saying it was the um uh in reference to what happened at the Alaska summit the uh anyway so they failed I mean they Trump failed to fulfill the what he had agreed to at the Alaska summit. Yeah yeah yeah. So, uh, so obviously Russia is seemingly doing the same thing, uh, essentially ignoring the Trump administration as a as a party that is worth negotiating with.

So, how will Donald Trump then be remembered uh, in terms of foreign policy if it were to end today? Obviously, there's two years left. We don't know what's going to happen, but if it were to end today, how would he be remembered? is a complete failure.

Someone who [clears throat] endangered America, didn't make America more secure, more powerful. He weakened America, ruined America's image in the world, and contributed to an as on his way to becoming the Herbert Hoover of the 21st century. [snorts] Spirit of Anchorage is what I was looking for. Uh where Russia, who was at Ushakov, who said, "What's that?

" Uh but uh uh and that's exactly what you just said, not being remembered as Herbert Hoover. I believe that's exactly what Donald Trump has told uh people close to him. He does not want to be remembered as. Uh and yet here we are.

Larry, any final thoughts on the world situation? You know, my friend, I wish it would get better, but the the good news for you is you're always going to have something to talk about for the foreseeable future. Yay. [laughter] No, I mean that's exactly I agree with you.

We we hope it gets better. It seems like when the world situation moves in a positive direction, the United States, Israel, and of course anyone who follows along with them, uh Saudi uh they uh they try to make the world uh as as worse as possible to protect what they believe they're losing. But [snorts] nevertheless, we'll have many more conversations to come. Everybody, make sure you follow Sonar 21 Transition Protocol on YouTube.

Obser 21 Larry's blog.

[admin]

Vijay Prashad:IRAN Just Threatened to CUT the INTERNET,Who Is Really Making Iran’s War DECISIONS Now
Transition Protocol
Aug 16, 2026 #IranUS #Hormuz #Trump

BREAKING: Iran's newly elevated security chief has quietly approved a plan to cut the undersea cables running through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb — a move that could plunge parts of Europe and the US into digital darkness if the Trump administration follows through on threats against Tehran. In this urgent Transition Protocol dispatch, Zulfiqar Ali is joined by globally recognized analyst Vijay Prashad, live from Santiago, Chile, to break down why Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE are quietly building a new regional security order that cuts Washington out of the Gulf, why the UAE has reportedly moved two tons of gold and three billion dollars to Tehran, and why the United States may have no face-saving way to end this standoff.
Vijay Prashad is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and a widely published analyst of global power shifts, multipolarity, and the Global South. Zulfiqar Ali is the host of Transition Protocol, a source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel covering de-dollarization, BRICS, the multipolar world order, global finance, and great-power rivalry.
This reporting draws on privileged sourcing on developing matters and is clearly flagged throughout as CONFIRMED, DEVELOPING, or UNVERIFIED/SPECULATIVE — watch the full episode for the complete picture, timestamps, and sourcing context. Transition Protocol / Power Shift is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel focused on evidence-based reporting and high-signal breakdowns of global power shifts and their financial consequences.



Transcript

This is transition protocol. This is Saturday the 15th of August. We are here on a day when we usually do not uh record uh and do not address you. But we have also said to you many times at our global audience all over the world in 14 languages that we will come and we owe you the breaking news that we receive from sources that are privileged sources that trust us to bring this news to you without any veneer of uh a spin or any other interest other than the fact that we report it the way it is delivered to us and We believe this to be the case.

We believe this to be true. This news is not available to legacy media because they do not have access to these spaces. This news is not available to independent media because again they don't do not have access. So we we believe that we have a a duty and we are duty bound to bring it to you and we are deeply privileged deeply honored that uh globally recognized uh analysts such as Vijay Prasad uh trusted for their insight trusted for their observation gained over decades in many many countries and today he's in Santiago Chile have kindly agreed agreed to interpret the news that we we brought to him so that uh it is provided to you as a perspective on the tectonic shifts taking place in the world.

Literally tectonic shifts. Uh if you like what we do, we kindly request that you hit the like and subscribe button. Go to our Substack channel, same name, transition protocol, become a paid member. We will deliver this highquality news to you twice a week for a very small fee less than a cost of coffee of $5 a month.

Go ahead, Vijay. Well, you know, it's again great to be with you, Zulfikar. I'm I'm really pleased to to um try to set some of this into context, but let's start with what is widely known uh which has been publicly reported. um you know there's a spears of victory multinational um training exercise that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been involved in and so we know that in January of this year Pakistan deployed F-16 57 F-16 fighters to um to King Abdulaziz air base in in in Saudi Arabia.

We already know that that's been reported in the press. There were reports as well that there were JF17 fighters from Pakistan. Also drones uh Pakistani operated air defense systems were brought into Saudi Arabia. 3 minutesAt the time it was told to us in January that this was entirely for the spears of of victory um uh exercise.

And indeed that was the case. there was a spears of victory exercise but now it looks like um that was part of a process. I mean we know that last year Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had signed a a cooperation agreement a defense cooperation agreement um and so spears of victory was part of that a multinational exercise no doubt but the anchor of the exercise was always going to be Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that was very interesting and those who observe these things looked at it pretty carefully and said well you know this is the depth of of kind of alliance that we haven't seen. Well, after the US and Israeli attack on on Iran, the the war of aggression on Iran, we saw that um Pakistan had developed much closer relations with Iran, you know, entering into the arena as the main diplomatic um you know, avenue for the Iranians, supplanting the Omanis in a sense because I think Oman lost faith in the United States that they felt betrayed by the United States.

So Pakistan enters um you know Asim Munir who's the head of the military plays a very important role in this in building a a bridge between Islamabad and Thran. Well at the same time we also saw conversations deepened between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on security issues. The Mecca agreement which you and I have already talked about brought in Turkey into this defensive alignment. There was talk about Egypt entering it.

Um you know you and I have already said all eyes on Iraq. Where is Iraq going? But meanwhile um it appears as if there are more Pakistani um you know troops and hardware in Saudi Arabia. And this is a very important thing to pay attention to.

This is not entirely related to um some sort of um military exercise. This looks like there is indeed a permanent reduction of US strategic uh role in this region and that the idea of a kind of regional security agreement um is going to be held by on the one side Pakistan on the other side Saudi Arabia with Turkey to some extent. Um the United States it it appears is being set aside. This is very important.

Um that it is been said now in another phone call between um Muhammad bin Salman and and the Trump administration with Donald Trump that the Saudis will not permit Saudi airspace to be used for any operations against Iran. Now this is interesting. It's not necessary that Saudi airspace um wouldn't be needed because after all, and by the way, I would like to offer my my sincere um um you know uh you know, solidarity with the sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. They've been at sea for 250 days.

Um you know this is in fact a record for for for sailors to be at sea for almost a year without touching land. Um the USS Abraham Lincoln has has reached such a situation where soldiers sailors have been jumping overboard frustrated and so on. It's a very difficult situation for them. They don't really need Saudi airspace where they are sitting out in in the um in the in in the sea.

They don't need Saudi airspace. But it is important as a political gesture that the Saudis have said that they will neither allow their airspace nor be a launching pattern for the United States to to attack Iran. In fact, I think in a sense they are saying to attack anybody. Um we are seeing that there is a new regional development taking place between the south between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and some of the other GCC states.

Let's include Qatar in this. Qatar has already said that they want the United States um no longer to have an air base um in in in in in the land of Qatar. But we're also looking and this is actually quite significant that there may be sniffles coming from the United Arab Emirates. United Arab Emirates is not necessarily 100% behind what Saudi Arabia does.

After all, in the case of the war in Sudan, they might very well be on opposite sides of the fence. But here the United Arab Emirates, Dubai leading the way as the largest of the Emirates seems to have made it clear that they want to have some sort of agreement with Iran. They don't want to, you know, allow Iranian target practice on on the beautiful cities of of not only Dubai but but the others including Sharah and so on. They don't want to be target practice.

So you see Dubai also making an agreement with Thran. You know so far not a very public statement but this is important. That means that in time Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Oman, Qatar, maybe even the United Arab Emirates. And behind all this, I'm very happy to to say that it looks like um you know that even even the the the Chinese think this is a good move.

this development of a regional security alliance. After all, in Xiinping's global governance documents, they have talked a lot about the need for regional uh security, not allowing one, you know, as as Vladimir Putin said at the at the Munich Security Conference in 2007, not one single master um but having in a sense um you know uh several different uh polls or or or or regional security arrangements and and we are seeing in this one of them takes take place and by the way um as part of this it it'll be interesting to see further you know whether this um UAE linked aircraft that is transferred wealth uh to Thran you know where we are seeing um our own sources tell us that 10 minutesbillions of dollars tons of gold and so on being transfer into Thran from the UAE. Is this some sort of uh oneoff thing or is this going to become a regular thing? The point is really the point here is that we're seeing a regional need for trust and and I think this is very important in the long term.

You take a 500year perspective on this. you know these regions had a very close relationship to each other um before the Portuguese entered the Indian Ocean and militarized trade you know we used to trade between Zanzibar, Oman and and and Sri Lanka at that point I suppose the kingdom of Candi we trained we we traded with each other without weapons and without um you know military force And and I think in a sense this strategic pivot away from the United States and its armada is suggesting to us that you know Zulpikar if I can put this in a very clear way. It's suggesting to to us that the age of Vascodama might be coming to an end because after all I would say I would say it has end it has ended. I will go further on the limb.

Yes. In a sense, you know, the the the title of our conversation today could very well be the age of Vasco Dagama has ended. And those who don't know Vasco Dagama might want to read up on him. He was after all the mariner who brought the Portuguese ships around the Cape of Good Hope in in in southern tip of Africa.

For the first time we saw European big ships in the Indian Ocean. Um previously of course we had we had had a lot of trade in the Indian Ocean. Even Chinese ships uh Chinese a Chinese fleet led by Admiral Chungho had come from China into to the coast of Africa. Well, well, in in 1498, uh, Vasco Dagama enters into um the Indian Ocean and brings a very different attitude to international trade and to dominion, not overlapping and multiple forms of sovereignty.

But the Portuguese wanted singular sovereignty that they are the only sovereigns. From Portugal, we went to Britain and now to the United States. And in fact, as I'm saying, the age of Vasco Dagama has ended because perhaps we are returning to multiple and overlapping sovereignties where countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, India and others might start understanding themselves not in a competing sense of seeking singular sovereignty being the only country in charge, but where many countries manage um you know things like the strait of Hormuz, Babal Mandab and so on uh in a in a in a collective way and not seeking singular dominion as the United States has sought. Well uh uh everything is pointing in that direction.

Every single thing is pointing in that direction. And uh not only that, as you and I discussed uh just before we started, uh Iran is feeling very empowered. uh the fact that uh Mosen Razai is beginning to make decisions on behalf of the supreme leader and Mosen Razai being a person of unquestioned qual qualifications military-wise and having the relationships that he has with R IGC and with what you and I discussed which is breaking news. Nobody else has access to that.

Uh as far as we know that he has oaed a plan to cut off cables going through the straight of harm and through their partners in in in the Houthis and the Babel Manddev. He he has okay the plans to plunge the entire region uh including Europe parts of the United States into total internet darkness if Mr. Trump so acts upon his his threats of opening the gates of hell. Uh the g gates of hell will be open on him Mr.

Trump not not the other way around. Uh so we are not only seeing the end of the uh age of dama dama we are also seeing the rise of the vassels. Uh I mean I hate to say that but that is really what is going on. " Uh, from the phone call that we are uh reporting uh which is not widely reported, but we know that to be a fact because we have sources that are in the room so to speak uh uh who who know that Mr.

uh Trump was told in no uncertain terms by MBS the crown prince that well uh you know you're uh we we are not going to allow you to use our airspace. We're not going to allow you to use our bases and we would rather that you quit quit this campaign. We are capable of handling this ourselves. This was emphasized.

We will we will handle this ourselves. And concurrently, MBZ of UAE brings in an offering of two tons of gold, $3 billion in three different aircraft. So, what you know, what does that mean? Yeah.

I want to actually go back for a second to major general Mosen Razai's um appointment as the new head of the Supreme National Security Council because I think first we should start with a little biography of Mosen Razai himself. Mosen Razai is a very very important figure in Iranian history. um you know he was uh from a very early period as a student involved in establishing contacts between various uh provincial towns in the anti-Sha movement. He's the founder of Masnuru which was a very well-known underground organization uh that opposed the sha.

when he came to Thran eventually as a student in the university of science and technology he was studying mechanical engineering he went underground um and was very very senior in the anti-Sha uh protest when Ayat Laki came back to Iran in 1979 he was one of the people who greeted him and was able to personally meet him it's important to mention that when the IRGC was founded, Mosen Razai was one of the people who who drafted um the the terms of agreement of the IRGC. Um he has been, you know, for for for years and years and years. Um he has been a very important figure in the IRGC. He he was a a commander in the war against to defend Iran from the Iraqi attack.

um you know he's he's been around for a very long time. It mustn't be thought of as somebody who just came from nowhere. Um he's been around for a very long time. And after his appointment, this is important.

He met with China's ambassador to Iran. That was one of his first meetings that he took. And then he met um on the 12th of August, the interior minister of Pakistan. And actually this meeting was very significant because in this meeting that he held where he um sat with um with with Syad Mosen Nakqui um the conversation was all about the Mecca agreement and it was made very clear between Mr.

Naki and Mosen Razai that this agreement had nothing it was not an anti-Iran agreement. and it was very clearly made to them that this was about regional security. So I I wanted to do this little background for us on Mosen Razi just to show you firstly that the depth of of of of personnel in the Iranian system is very great. I mean these are people who are highly experienced.

Um these are not people who come you know who emerged yesterday. These are very experienced people. He was born in 1954. So it's not like he's he's 70 80 years old, you know, older than that, you know, he's he is a person who's in his prime right now with a lot of experience and and that's the key thing about Mosin Rail.

Now the the issue you raised about um the United Arab Emirates, this is a very important issue. The close ties developing between particularly Dubai which effectively runs the United Arab Emirates, the the Emirate of Dubai and and Thran. This is very very important because until recently it was thought that there was a lot of suspicion particularly between the UAE and the Iranians but also the UAE and the Saudis. Uh they have their own internal problems.

As I as I said the question of the war in Sudan that's one of them but not the only one. They they are competing in the Horn of Africa in other parts of of the African continent. But on this issue, it looks like Dubai and and um Riyad are seeing eye to eye. And I think this is important to understand that on this issue, they are seeing eye to eye.

I mean, some of this has to do with the fact that Thran has demonstrated conclusively to the GCC countries that they are not um to be they should not believe that the United States is going to defend them. I mean, this is a very key lesson being learned from uh Kuwait all the way down to to Dubai that the United States is not going to come to their defense when it counts. The United States has its own interests at heart and the United States principal ally in the region is not Saudi Arabia, it's not Dubai, it's Israel. And I think that understanding has been pretty fundamental in these last couple of months that the United States hasn't been able to quote unquote teach Iran a lesson.

The only lesson it's taught has been to the GCC member states who have realized that they are not to be protected by the United States. They have to seek a regional security arrangement. And that's precisely what it looks like they are seeking. We should not get misled by you know the weight of gold that is being transacted and so on.

It's not about that. It's about the fact that these countries are turning away from reliance on the United States and perhaps for the first time in maybe a hundred years they are beginning to to understand that they need to rely on each other. Let's see how far this goes. You know, I don't want to overstate the case here, but I I do want to say that as far as Iran is concerned, 22 minutesI think they have made some pretty interesting personnel decisions, bringing in people like Mosen Razai, a very devoted person devoted to the um Iranian revolution, to the Islamic regime, uh very sophisticated uh thinker in his own right and so on and and his moves to meet with China to meet with Pakistan.

These are the first meetings he has taken that have been publicly advertised. I think this is very significant and it shows you that they are seeking regional security and it shows you that the Chinese have given their blessings for this. Exactly the case. Exactly the case, Vijay.

And now this should be seen in the context of what the hubris I mean the massive hubris uh stupidity rank uh uh uh incompetence existed in the minds of Netanyahu and Trump when they engaged in a decapitation campaign thinking that by wiping out uh certain portions of the leadership uh they are going to decapitate Iran and Iran will be on his knees begging them for mercy and just the opposite has happened. I mean how can how can this happened? How can such rank stupidity, hubris, incompetence and a combination of all of that exist in what we thought so far as the greatest country on earth which I mean I live here. I I have lived here for 50 years and and I love this country.

I love the people, but I detest it leadership. How can this happen? How can Nathan be allowed to to push his agenda with the with the United States Congress not not even having the courage of saying no to unconditional support? I mean that that is that is one part of the story.

" Well, try that. 20 Iranian boards are ready to receive him. Exactly. I mean the miscalculations are are are legion.

You know um at the in the early part of this period Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant had said that he'd bring unprecedented economic hurt to Iran. Okay. You know and and and they made all kinds of really tough comments about about what they would do to Iran's economy and so on. Okay.

Very interesting. I mean we you mentioned the United Arab Emirates sending gold and and and currency to Iran. This is not payment from the UAE. That should not be be misunderstood by people.

Is most likely sanctions related seized assets that the uh UAE is releasing to Iran. That means Iran is getting back the assets that had been had been seized by the the West uh on behalf of the West by the United Arab Emirates and so on. they're returning it to Iran. So this idea of unprecedented economic hurt, of course the people are suffering in Iran, it's very difficult.

The other day I spent an hour talking to a couple of journalists in Iran. The situation is grave. But you know, it it helps them to get hard currency assets like that. They can start buying from other parts of the world the various things that they need.

um while this is happening, while they are able to get a window uh to help sustain their economy and so on and hold fast against the blackmail from the Trump administration, they've put on the table now that if if there if there's to be a a ceasefire, military operations in Palestine must end. Forget Lebanon. They put on the table Palestine. You know, we are in a situation now where the United States is finding that for instance, it's SM3s.

Um, it's it's it's various missiles, Patriot, SM3s, SM6s, JASSM, and so on. They are down some of them to 50% of of of of the inventory. You know, um the tomahawks are down to 67%. you know, they're wiping out the inventory, not only in in uh against the Iranians, but but in other places, you know, firing some off against the Yemenes, giving some to the the Israelis.

Um, you know, there's conflicting reports, but the their Patriot missiles, the defense missiles are down to about 50%, some people are saying 39%. It takes years to build up the inventory. It can't be built up immediately. um you know when you have uh you know the the enormous amount of USIsraeli attacks on Iran um you know 10,000 20,000 30,000 who's counting they are basically utilizing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of of military hardware well that's all going off you know when Scott Bessant says we are going to bring unprecedented economic hardship to Iran well end of the day that economic hardship ship might come to the United States because they're going to have to divert whatever money they would have spent on social spending or on building infrastructure and so on.

They're going to have to uh divert that to building up their military inventory which they've effectively wasted on Iranian soil. Meanwhile, the unprecedented economic hardship that Scott Bresent um you know promised for Iran might not happen. Iran getting a lease of life from the UAE handing over its frozen assets. Let's see who else is going to hand over frozen assets.

Yeah. If it starts with the UAE, will others open up and start handing the money over? You know, let's see what the Europeans are going to do. How will they bet on the situation?

Frankly speaking? Yeah. I mean, the the the situation is such that the Iranians have prepared for this this attack. I 29 minutesmean they they are not 100 million Iranians are not ready to surrender at all.

Yeah. So they are prepared for this and and if the UAE hands over seized previously seized um sanctions related assets who knows who's who's going to hand over things next you know is there where are there assets in Qatar that will be handed over? what is being held in in as I said Europe already but in other parts of Asia you know will this be handed over how will other Asian countries deal with with Iran you know I mean China has an absolutely vital rail link that runs through Iran um will China come in with with economic assistance you know we we know that there is some Chinese assistance already that's the reason why why Mosen Razai met with the Chinese First, yeah, there there's there's assistance coming, but will more come? And then what happens to 30 minutesScott Besson's pledge?

You know, unprecedented economic hardship? Guess who's suffering the economic hardship? It's not Iran necessarily. It might end up being the United States, you know, it might end up being even more so Europeans and so on.

Who knows? Well, uh, the situation is completely reversed. Instead of Iran being made to suffer and get isolated, it's the United States that has been made to suffer and get isolated and and its allies. And now the situation is earning is entering a final phase.

uh Vijay it's interesting you know Musin Razai being the careful guy that he is and highly respected he settled a dispute between the IRGC which wanted more offensive capabilities uh uh you know deployed against the United States versus Pashian the president Iraqi foreign minister Galibav the the the number three person now used to be number two he head of the parliament Bulus he mediated that and he said okay we'll give we'll give diplomacy you know a few days and then he met up with Mosen Nakwi to relay to Aimir because Mosen Naki and Asimir are very close uh now it is entering the final phase he has made this decision to allow the cables to be cut in case hostilities uh became intense uh the Gulf countries don't want the United is the the sailors are tired. Uh I mean I my heart goes out to them. Uh they're trying to kill themselves rather than you know continue their deployment. You are a very astute observer.

You have seen all of this many times. Uh travel the world constantly. How does this end? Yeah, it's it's really very difficult to to say, you know, um it's this is a matter of prestige for the United States.

Yeah. I mean, if I was sitting in in in Washington or in Langley at the CIA and I would I would be I would be told that that Mosen Nakqui was dispatched to Iran right after uh Iran Iran had decided on a change of leadership and after the Mecca agreement was passed. I would worry about that because um you know Mosen Nakqui is not an ordinary person. Yes, he's the interior minister and so on, but as you just said, he's very important because he is he's in a way Asimun's man in in in in the government of Pakistan.

I mean, that's what he's doing there. Um he he he has the uh the complete trust of more of Aim Muned than of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shabbaz Shafi. I mean Shab Sharif Shabbaz Sharif's you know has him there as as the military's man just just to be very blunt and clear about they're related related exactly understand that helps uh that helps um but you know uh it it's it's important that he was sent and it's important that in the readout of the meetings there's a lot there that was not obviously told to the public for instance is said to have conveyed a personal message. We don't know what was in the message but in the readout it was already it was clarified that in the meeting uh the discussion was about the Mecca agreement and that means that um the Pakistanis wanted to be quite clear with the Iranians the nature of the agreement and the very fact as the Iranians already had been briefed that this was not an anti-Iran agreement.

Now, if you're sitting in Langley and you're sitting in Washington, these are all very troubling scenarios and the United States has to maintain its prestige. It cannot walk out of this conflict uh with the appearance of defeat. The United States, particularly the United States under Donald Trump, would just not like that. Trump would like to um you know spin this in such a way that it appears as if he has won it.

remember his great um statements were about how Joe Biden uh precipitously withdrew from Afghanistan. There is no backdoor for the United States to withdraw from this conflict looking like the victor. There there really isn't a way I I've been trying to think about this. What can the Iranians do right now to allow the United States to leave with dignity?

You know what can they give the United States? At the very le at the very least at the very least 35 minutesthe Iranians can say because of the United States attack on Iran we have decided um that we are not going to enrich uranium and that we are going to hand over x amount of enriched uranium to the United States. But imagine Iran after this strategic um victory, imagine Iran having to do that for the United States so that the United States can leave with dignity. I don't think it's going to happen.

I don't think the current leadership in Thran is going to be willing to do something like that. In other words, what I'm trying to uh gauge is is is the fact that the United States has no exit. that is um under that we can you know game out you know think think through what are the potential exits there's nothing that the Iranians would be willing to do that would give the United States an an ability to exit from this conflict um with the sense of of of somehow victory I I just can't see it which means the US will find it very difficult to exit this conflict I I don't see it. Which is why Trump keeps saying we are near conclusion but cannot actually conclude the war.

We are near conclusion but cannot conclude the war because he can't get anything out of the Iranians which will allow the United States to appear as if it has left the victor. I just don't see it. And so I think we're in for a very long period of a strange kind of of war no war, you know, a kind of phony war like in the 1940s in parts of Western Europe. A phony war, a war no war, a war that cannot end but cannot continue.

Well, uh I can say this uh with as much confidence as I can muster with my insight into Iran and in Pakistan. Uh Iran is not going to hand over any nuclear materials. Absolutely not. Not not not.

And not only that, Iran has secured that material in places where very very very few people know where where it is. the supreme leader uh now Mosen Razik a few others and that's it I mean handful in a country of 100 million people it's only a handful people know where this material is and it shall not be delivered to the United States period uh so that is that is a given now the second given is that uh IRGC feels very emboldened IRG I mean correctly so and IRGC uh wants this these hostilities to continue. Actually, they are not interested in in shutting down because they want to force the United States into a shameful retreat, not a dignified retreat and into a shameful retreat. This is something that I I know for a fact from my reporting.

So Vijay Heaven with your great uh expanse of knowledge gained from many many continents the trontinental institute that you run how does this end? I mean, as I say, I'm I'm afraid I'm afraid that we will be in this long period where there will be no end because I mean, the only ending can come if there is significant pressure on Israel and the United States to just back off and and right now there is no uh such pressure from Europe which wants to draw the United States further into its own conflict. um in Ukraine. So there'll be no pressure from Europe, on the United States.

Um I don't see the BRICS countries right now putting pressure on the US to just back out of this. Um reality has already told the United States it's lost. Reality has already said so. But pride is going to prevent the US from walking away.

Somebody has to put pressure or somebody has to give Mr. Trump the illusion of victory. And I just don't see the illusion of victory at all. You're right.

There is no chance that Iran is going to give the US the illusion of victory. Uh it's I don't see any way. And as far as as as um somebody showing Mr. Trump a way out without Iran conceding anything, I I don't see it.

I'm trying to think of it, but I don't see it. Uh right now, Mr. Trump is actually secure in his belief that Iran is weak and that somehow um Iran will tomorrow decide that okay we 40 minutessurrender X Y Z but you know that's an illusion. We know looking at it from the other side that Iran is not weak.

And I and I would I would suggest that, you know, seasoned observers whom I've interviewed over the years at the CIA and at the State Department are watching exactly what you and I are watching. Maybe they even listen to the transition protocol. They they subscribe to this channel. Maybe they even, you know, will be accused of being funded by the CIA, but maybe some of them even um, you know, uh, uh, subscribe in order to get the privileged information and so on.

Uh, we don't know, but but I know that they are informed people in Washington. Uh, you know, they are not all living in some sort of fantasy land. They know the reality. They know there's no way for the US to come out of this with a victory.

um they are not willing to drop a nuclear bomb in Thran in order to claim victory. But hey, wait a minute. United States already did that in Japan. You know, they dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to expedite what was always happening in in the Japanese case, which was a surrender.

In this case, God knows the United States might end up dropping a nuclear bomb on an Iranian city in order to prove a point uh and then say we won this this conflict. We don't know because the United States is a country that does not like to um leave a war zone admitting defeat. You know, it has withdrawn from Vietnam, withdrawn from from from Iraq, withdrawn from Afghanistan. In fact, I wrote a book called The Withdrawal.

uh it has withdrawn from all these places but it continues to claim them in a bizarre way as victory. So I I don't know. I mean the United States suffers an excess of pride and is unable to see when it's been beaten. And in this case it has been beaten pretty conclusively not on the battlefield but on the strategy arena in terms of strategy.

It has been defeated by the Iranians not on the battlefield but strategically. Well, strategic defeat is what the United States suffered in Afghanistan after 12 years of war. The Taliban are back more powerful than ever before. Uh Iraq more powerful than before in the favor of Iran, not in the favor of the United States.

Uh Vietnam, humiliating defeat. So they have suffered defeats one after the other because of the hubris. And the man right now is is not only seeped in hubris, he's seeped in ignorance. He doesn't listen to anybody.

He doesn't read anything. Things have to be explained to him in pictures. So I'm not very hopeful. And uh but I I see the inevitable end, Vijay.

I see the inevitable end. his hubris, his pride, his is his his ignorance is is only going to take him so far and after that it's just going to collapse and when that happens uh the world is going to change and that is the reason we are here on a Saturday dragging our dear friend from his holidays in San Diego, Chile uh to explain to uh the many hundreds of thousands who watch us and all over the world in many languages and we are so grateful for their report uh what we truly believe is breaking news that nobody else has that puts everything in perspective. So, thank you very much for your support. Thank you very much, Vijay.

I really appreciate and deeply honored that you're here. Uh to our subscribers, to our listeners, if you like what we do, please subscribe. That helps us. Uh please go to the uh Substack uh portion of our show, same name, and become a paid member.

$5 a month, less than what you will get in terms of a c cost of a coffee and we will deliver twice a week this kind of news inside your mailbox. So thank you very much. Until next time, Vijay, the last word to you, please. Well, look, I'm very happy to be with you.

I think that that you know we watch Iran as closely as anybody and and I mean you know we we talked to people in Iran. I I spent several hours this week talking to journalists in Thran and in Isfan and I must say uh they say the mood in the country is pretty high despite the great civilian cost and and I think that's something that we we need to register. Um Iran is not prepared uh to surrender. is preparing for a very long conflict and and I on you know for the sake of the Iranian people and other people hope that it's not going to be a long conflict but we'll be here to report it regardless.

Well uh thank you Vijay that's why you are here that's why you are a founding member of this channel and our reporting I mean my reporting comes from a different angle uh which is uh looking at the at at at at the picture you know slightly different way and our other colleagues Pepe and Larry also do the same thing and that's why we believe we have valuable information that we can bring to our audiences so thank you very much go back to your vacation I shall see you again on a regular which is Thursday. Goodbye. Good night. Bye.

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Alastair Crooke: Trump’s Card Just Broke the Status Quo
Dialogue Works
Aug 17, 2026



Transcript

Hi everybody. Today is Monday, August 17, 20126 and our dear friend Alistister Krook is here with us. Welcome back Alison. Thank you very much.

Always a pleasure to join you. There is a lot to talk about Alistair today because there are many things that have happened in the West Asia. But let me start with the latest one which was Donald Trump's interview with Fox News. just an hour ago.

He said that if Oman Oman the government in Oman gets in the way, we will bomb them. We will bomb them. He said something unpleasant about Oman, but I don't want to mention that. But he said that we're going to destroy Oman.

And the other point that he was talking about, he said that Iran must raise the white flag of surrender. They are dying. This is the perception. Last night we've learned from Marjorie Taylor Green.

She posted on ACT said [clears throat] that they're they're talking about the use of nuclear bombs. This is the situation we're in. I I would I was wondering what is your assessment? What is happening in Washington?

Because mostly they're controlling the whole escalation because Iran is just watching what is going on in Washington to respond to that. What is happening in Washington in your eyes? Um, [clears throat] I think they're just losing it. I think they're just losing it.

I mean, in all sorts of ways. Uh, by that I mean they're just becoming desperate and therefore more and more deluded. Um, because, uh, it's not so much just about Iran, it's about the economic situation and the bond market. And it's really getting worse and worse.

Um the bond market is you know the stock market can go up but the B bond market the interest rates are going higher and higher and that's bad news because it could collapse the AI um which on which Trump is betting everything the AI buildout the big mega buildout of AI trillions going into of money, you know, the and what happens when, you know, the the money stops, when liquidity dries up, it's not all coming from the banks. A lot of it's coming from uh private um private um credit, private equity, um the shadow banking system. So, a lot of it is coming from um from areas and I remember the head of the BIS was saying not so long ago I heard him saying and he said he just retired from the Bank for International Settlements which is an international organization and he said look you know at the moment he said the banks I mean they're more or less regulated I mean he's talking about American banks mainly He said, "But when you go into the private equity, the private credit sphere, he says that's now half of the credit giving structure in America. 50% of all credit is not coming from banks, but it is being given in terms of leverage and derivatives and all these things either from hedge funds or or or from these sort of shadow banks.

And then he added, "And we have no clue what's going on there. " And he implied he thought there were quite a lot of not such good things going on there at all. So when you think of it in 4 minutesthat terms that you know I mean we know that most of these people are buying um three times leveraged EFTs on AI products. Um so they're already three times leveraged structurally three times leverage.

So of course if it goes up a small amount you make three times as you know the profit is three times as much goes up by 3% you get 9% or whatever you okay but of course if it goes down and if there's a collapse then you're not losing 3% you're losing 9%. That's the the the the effective leverage. But those people who are buying these exchange traded funds at three times leverage are actually getting further leverage to buy the three times leveraged fund. So if there is a problem with liquidity, if there is a problem with credit, then the consequences can be quite serious across.

So we just put it like that. 4 4 trillion uh of US treasuries. The yen is getting is losing value. They tried to bolster it.

Um they did that. Um Bessent um started selling he didn't sell he didn't sell dollars a bit cheeky. He sold euros to buy yen. and rather than selling dollars, I don't think the ECB was so happy, but because they weren't informed or told.

So anyway, they're trying to prop that up, but again, it's the value, as I understand it, is declining again. So, I mean, how what are they going to do? Because at the moment, I mean, long-term interest rates go up in Japan, which they haven't done for 20 years or more, being stuck at zero. I mean, it's going to impact and what we're seeing is long-term interest rates are going up everywhere altogether across many different states.

So I think they're they're desperate and their desperation is primarily about saving the AI project on which Trump is betting everything the future of the American economy and the AI project doesn't make sense. 7 minutesyou know, I'm not a Wall Street in, you know, I'm not sort of a a a technocrat of that sort at all, but simply um the amount of money that they are investing for these data centers and for all the products, it it doesn't show a return. There's no profit. There's no return on on investment for it.

I mean, tiny 3% something like this. And yet they're putting in, you know, 500 billion here. And it's also even the markets are getting the idea that it's all a little suspect because, you know, you get Amazon lending to Microsoft who lends to um [clears throat] um Anthropic or whatever. And they all record this as pro as revenue or profit when actually it's the same money going around in a circle.

I mean, it's reminiscent of the dot boom of some years past. So, I think they're very desperate about all of this and that's their primary, but it's making them, you know, very antsy, [clears throat] you know, uptight, tense, erratic. I hadn't seen what you said that Trump had had mentioned. Um, but we do know that they had a meeting, I think, wasn't it on Saturday?

They called everyone to Camp David and they had a meeting at Camp David and then Marie Taylor Green came out with her tweet saying, "No, you know, this isn't speculation. It's real. " Now, does that mean that we are heading into a nuclear attack on Iran? I I don't think so.

I don't I really don't think so because it's not the first time. It's been raised before to as I understand it from people with direct sort of knowledge of this. Um and that the military said no way. Um this is a a war crime and that [clears throat] is against military um standards.

Uh, and we are not allowed to allow you to commit war crimes. Ultimately, of course, as I understand it, but you'd have to ask some American expert, but ultimately, as I understand it, um, the president can overrule the chief of staff, but it would be a big event. And would the cabinet go along with that? I mean, big questions.

So, what what what's going to happen in Iran? Um, I just don't think that the United States has the wherewithal now to mount a big war on Iran. I don't think it has the fuel beside the intercept missiles cuz don't forget this middle distillate that is missing from the refineries can either be um distilled into diesel or kerosene but not both at the same time. It's one or the other.

And at the moment, I think they're choosing diesel because diesel is in great shortage. Is there enough kerosene? Well, we can see, you know, the supply lines are not great in the US. We saw when it comes to the aircraft carriers, the supply lines for a little bit of meat and vegetable for 5,000 men on board a carrier.

I mean, were I mean, terrible. I mean, criminal. you know, you can't have 500 men and feed them a little bit of a, you know, few chopped up carrots and a slug of, uh, whatever it was, spam or something, uh, you know, because there'll be a revolt, I think, in some at some point. Anyway, so supply lines.

So I I you know it's I don't want to try and be sort of um you know too predictive on the sort too assertive. We don't know Trump you know has an impaired mental facilities. Uh you never know what can come from this. It's a very dangerous situation.

Um, we don't know why he's gone to war with Iran. I I was just going to say if you if you [clears throat] allow me just to say one of the things it was in our Substack um of this uh um this week um we wrote about um the report by Mayor um who which we'd already seen it was coming out that circles around circles in the military defense intelligence field in Israel. It was almost it was Ashling that saw it and she said, "Look, you know, look what's what's happening. They it's almost as if they're sort of exchanging messages and there is a sort of a a group think taking place because that's unusual because they keep like most journalists they keep you know their things very separate and it seemed that uh you know something was happening and what they were saying was Netanyahu lied and he lied to get um [clears throat] not a preemptive but a if you like a preventative war by declaring that Iran was on the edge of um a a weapon and he used emotive language, you know, a sword at our throat.

This was the 12th hour invoking the Holocaust. And the the reality was that the um the Israeli military had no did not support that view at all. Now, Mossad, which is appoint who is appointed by the prime minister um may David Bier who subsequently has been sacked or departed um may have gone along with it, but military intelligence and the military research intelligence group also said no, we have absolutely no indication of an imminent anything from Iran. nothing.

There is no intelligence to support this. And they wrote this to the cabinet and said, and this has come out in other further investigations amongst these journalists who were talking to people in the intelligence and security community in Israel. And they say they came out and there was um there was no evidence of that. There was a little bit of talk on you know internet but it meant nothing.

There was no physical signs of preparations to shift towards it. And they then said pretty much that they agreed with the American assessment. There wasn't a program to move to a weapon. There wasn't a weapons program underway and Iran was not about to move towards it.

So they shed pretty much the the line that the Americans were were saying in this and that's what they wrote to the cabinet. What happened? No one really knows. Um one of the prominent journalists say you know the problem is that the Netanyahu's decision-m has become a black box.

So no one knows quite how decisions are taken in Israel. And it it it seems pretty clear um that he really pushed the idea of an imminent threat from Iran on on emotive language, emotivism, saying, you know, holocaust, 12th hour, you know, dagger at our throat. And his own military intelligence was saying nothing, that is not true. And what happened we don't know but subsequent investigations by these groups of the you know the the these journalists who who have very good links and who who talk to to intelligence officers in Israel and others say when it came to it there was no discussion.

There was no discussion about, you know, this was for the the last round, the second round of the war. There was no discussion about its likelihood um to collapse Iran. In fact, the assessment that was provided by the military intelligence was very low probability of being able to implode [clears throat] Iran by military means. And um that they said but no one got up and said look all of this you know Netanyahu's had a fantasy about you know this in Iran this is the main part of his book a third of it is devoted to you know how he is the Messiah of Israel and this is how it's going to be and you know he's the one who's going to save Israel from imminent collapse and worse complete imminent death from you know effectively saying you know in a week's time none of us will be here I mean that's the sort 17 minutesof language so no one got up and said anything so my point in this article was basically saying how much did the American officials know before they had that meeting if you recall that meeting at the situation from, you know, they have contacts and links with me uh with Israeli military intelligence, and I assume so.

I'd be very be very strange if they didn't. It would be a big question mark if they didn't know that the military intelligence was saying, "We see no signs of it. there's no evidence of it and we regard the likely outcome of an attack were to happen to be of success or to be very low. Did they know this?

Did they say that to Trump? Um, we have quite extensive reporting of that from the New York Times. I think you probably read it about that meeting in the situation room when Netanyahu went really hard on this operation and saying it was going to be a 4-day exercise and it was an easy war and um uh so did did part did uh Trump's team know that there was a contrarian view being expressed within the Israeli official establishment? or not?

And if not, why not? And if they did, what did they do about it? Did they say anything? Because, you know, this is this is overtones of the Iraq scandal.

You remember Colon Pal waving the sort of, you know, the powder, you know, weapons of mass destruction imminent. We have to take action, destroy Iraq. Well, in a way, you know, Netanyahu, he didn't wave a vial around, but he was saying, "It's imminent. It's coming.

" In which case, you know, America went to war on false pretenses. Just as in Iraq went to war on the false pretenses that there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none in Iraq. And we know afterwards it was false intelligence um that took them there. And again in the Iraq occasion there were people telling them you know telling the officials you know that there isn't intelligence that supports weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

No I'm I know that. And um then you know the head of intelligence would come back from meetings with Bush and say well you know the decisions been made anyway so now we have to fix the intelligence around that decision. o you know this was sort of this seems to me to be almost a repeat of the Iraq situation. So it's very serious um and very serious about you know who who is responsible uh for this.

So um uh I I think there are two things that are quite one can draw on from this. I think the first must be that I think the there is real anger in Israel because they feel you know Netanyahu took Israel to war and it was a complete strategic failure and an intelligence failure and I I'm not sure I think this might be the end of him ultimately not now there's elections coming up in October and things but you know there's a lot of feeling this is you know to take to take Israel to war is always considered in Israel to be such an existential issue that you don't do it unless you have absolutely you know as the Americans say you have the receipts and if you if they didn't I think it's even though we won't see it because all of these sort of discussions happen below the radar in Israel. You don't always hear what's you won't see in the Western press or you won't see in the English language press some of these discussions taking place. Um but I think it will have an effect in Israel and I think it will have an effect in America.

And one of the reasons I said, you know, I don't know, but I think that some of 22 minutesthis must be permeating even through to Washington. The sort of sense that maybe we've been taken into a war um uh in without justification. So I don't think you know even if Trump suggested it I think there would be pull back from from officials because everyone who's involved in that position bears responsibility. Yes, you can say it's president who pushes the button but actually it is all the um officials who advise him or didn't advise him um that have the responsibility too.

So I don't know whether this will happen or not but I as an as I say everything is really [clears throat] a sort of they're in a meltdown about the economic situation about the political situation in America about Japan um and they're in a not quite the same meltdown but they're pretty anxious about what's happening um in Ukraine. The Russians are are are really attacking, pummeling the infrastructure. They've destroyed the Odessa and the Black Sea ports pretty thoroughly. And now we have escalation from the Europeans providing missiles to Ukraine to fire even I mean more than deep Russia beyond deep Russia in that Samara base where which is their space station that apparently they fired a missile.

We don't know how much what damage if any it created, whether it was just a big fireball because we know the Ukrainians have been putting kerosene in their in their warheads in order to have the effect of flames and smoke and everything. It doesn't do doesn't do much damage, but it's good PR from the Ukrainian perspective. So all of this is sort of coming together and um it's still a dangerous it's still a dangerous moment. Uh I think yeah the memorandum of understanding last night it was that those 60 days of the memorandum which was mentioned that they were supposed to talk to advance to do something about those terms mentioned in theou they didn't do anything and just moments ago we've learned from the Iranian uh foreign ministry spokesman he said that there is no such thing as 60-day ceasefire There was supposed to be a period of sessation of hostilities for 60 days in which the United States and Iran would try to reach a deal but it it didn't succeed.

And the other point that he's mentioning that it doesn't mean that there was some sort of you know term some sort of duration for the MOU. It means that 60day doesn't mean anything. And are they going to extend it? Nobody knows.

And on the other hand, we had a report on Reuters mentioning that Iran has issued an ultimatum to the United States, return to serious diplomacy or remove the naval blockade. This is serious. What's going on with the blockade or face an expansion of the war? The deadline which is said to be several weeks at most has been communicated to the United States through Pakistani and gqar and this is what's going on alister do you think that there's still is there any sort of chance the two sides going to get together based on theou or you feel somehow theou is not going to work anymore?

Uh first of all I think what the foreign ministry spokesman said which you quoted is absolutely right. There is as you know I've had to do a number of ceasefire so-called negotiations. Um usually actually they won't ceasefires at all in that sense that there is something implicit commitments that are implicit in it. Uh the document of the MOU is basically a deescalation framework by which first of all tensions will be reduced um and particular areas of conflict um suppressed in order to see whether politics was possible whether a sort of political thing could emerge from it which is quite different.

It's not a, you know, people think of a ceasefire as something that has, you know, terms and things. Uh, theou was basically just a a framework for um deescalating violence and to see if there was any political process. Did um the Americans uh take it seriously, literally? I I'm one of those.

I mean, I don't know. Uh, I don't think so. I think they, you know, they don't really believe in those sort of agreements or commitments to other states. I mean, you know, they won't have them for themselves.

You know, they always exempt from treaties and agreements. Uh, I and I think this was, you know, you know, as soon as it doesn't suit America, they will reneg on the the terms of any agreement. I mean Iran understands that very well after the JCPOA experience. Um uh so um what uh [laughter] uh so I think that probably the JCPOA agreement which Trump signed um you know was was really a a deceit.

Um he never really seriously intended to You mean you mean Yeah. Um I think it was a deceit. I think he didn't really mean it and I think it was just a device because what he wanted to do was to put pressure on Iran through the Gulf States and everybody else uh to open Huns and that was it. I don't think you know then he would have you know at his leisure have decided to you know whether he wanted to negotiate with Iran on nuclear issues or not.

I don't think there's much appetite in Washington for negotiations on the nuclear issues anyway because they're unlikely to reach an an a on their terms they'd be unlikely to reach agreement and I think Iran would be crazy to go back into that structures of inspections and the IEA and sanctions and you know I mean it's been a very cruel siege each for this whole period on the Iranian people and I don't think they would I just I there may be some in Iran who would favor going back into a JCPOA like a sort of negotiations but I think there's a small element and I don't think the popular sentiment goes exactly the other way very strongly the other way so I don't think there is possibility So I and and I think that's the sort of judgment he's getting Trump is getting. So I don't think so don't think he would be um I don't think you know so I don't think theou was really you know any sense felt binding for Trump just a device the means to get Vance down there and tell them open the hormones that's it what I think we're going to see now is the opposite that Iran has now moving to completely different phase days of the war whereby having won the military war thus far they are going to put the pressure on Trump rather than allow Trump to put pressure on Iran and in fact most of Trump's efforts to put pressure on Iran for example through um through the Gulf States or through um pressurizing the um Hasha in Iraq or through Lebanon have actually backfired and put more pressure on America rather than put more pressure. Look, even the Gulf States are now saying, well, you know, maybe we're going to have to deal with in in Iran for the future. Um, so it's it's it's not worked.

So, what can he do? I mean either he can just walk away but that leaves the economy um in a very precarious state. So he is in a in a trap. Now there are many people who talk about you know call it an escalatory trap.

Pap is one professor paper. I think that's too, you know, sort of having been in these sort of negotiations for some times, I I think that's too I think it's too simplistic. Yes, it's a trap. Um um and you know, Bessent might try and do something to put more sanctions on Iran.

Um, but it won't get Trump out of the hole he's in because the hole is multi-dimensional and also because it's become so much more impossible to resolve because when it was it it was basically much more a bilateral process in visit but now it's far from that. I mean Saudi Arabia is at war with Yemen. Saudi Arabia and America are attacking the um the [laughter] the Iraqi resistance forces. Iran is attacking Kurds in Oil area.

Um Ukraine started attacking an Iranian ship in the Caspian. I mean the whole place is you know heating up but all of them are interconnected but they are all um if you like have their own agendas. So instead of just having one thing to sort out, Iran, America, now there's a whole matrix of issues that are opening up across the place. And you know, I just America doesn't have the diplomatic ability to, I think, resolve all of this.

And then you've got Israel. And Israel is escalating visibly in the West Bank and in Gaza, but visibly in the West Bank going in IDF or the police going in to um to attack um the refugee camps in West Bank, not the refugee camps in Gaza. Uh and it there are signs we see that the right are looking to do another Nakba. um either an attack on Alexa or um uh an attack or start if you like an inter some provocation that is going to end with them being able as they would wish to expel um to have the Palestinians uh expelled from their villages and towns and forced to flee overseas.

I mean terrible situation. You can imagine that will set the whole region on fire. Um it's going to be I mean I know that much of the region the Gulf states are in a sort of somewhat comeos state at the moment. The Sunnis um Gulf States um but nonetheless it will set the region on on on fire.

So all of this comes into the equation. So what happens if there is an attack on Iran? What happens if Netanyahu, you know, decides to explode the West Bank situation? Where would that leave Trump then?

Um that's a question. I don't have the answer to it, but you can see uh you know all the problems that that are are growing there. So I don't know um uh what um what he's going to do but Iran has changed and Iran is changing and that has been uh very important. I mean, when you listen and look at what's happening with the young people of Iran, um, I've said to you in on the previous programs about, you know, what's happening, but I think, you know, what's really happening is more important that young Iranians seem to be actually changing their disposition of attention to the world around them.

They're no longer stuck in mechanistic western thinking of, you know, something is either a or not a, but they're moving back to old forms of thinking that have long been in Iran, Iban Arabia and Iban SA. uh the idea of seeing with both eyes, of thinking holistically, of being able to think all together all at once and most importantly image and symbol coming back into um Iranian young people thinking, you know, the old idea that came from Surawadi originally uh and then was later expanded by Ben and Mulas too in a sense about the the fact that you know you can think through image. I mean this was not something that was exclusive to Iran. It predated the Islamic world and was present in in in Europe too who had you know received it from various sources from Egypt and other places.

But I mean the point about image was that um image you don't just look at the object but if you look at it you look at it beyond behind around [clears throat] why is there a clearing in the wood with this object here and so it opens up a different space uh a more spaciousness and if will start to change because how you spatialize the world around you depends on your mental state. The consciousness that you have. If you start to shift your consciousness then what you see is different and what you learn and if you think start to think in that old Iranian way you start to see what's behind and you start to see uh the world in a different way and I think that is happening in Iran um going back to uh earlier forms of of thinking and that is producing, you know, now great energy and an active people. People that are becoming active and um th this is a big shift in in in the way in which they dispose their [clears throat] their their position, their posture towards the world around them.

I mean now they see America for what it is. 39 minutesI mean a few a year ago many of them wouldn't have seen America for what it is. But now with a sort of shift in their sort of consciousness an opening an awareness of consciousness they see more clearly you know the geopolitical situation which probably they didn't so much before. And they see as I say they can start to think alto together all at once and understand the pattern differently from the sort of western way of thinking.

It's you know data and then concept and concept and conclusion like a sort of washing line hung out um and realized you can see all of this in the whole all together all at once. So I think some of those ideas are are are changing and giving the the resilience and the strength that um the young have and their readiness to see a continuation and and and an an understanding that I think was always there. I mean there are many people commentators who disagree with me and say oh no you know Iran is perhaps overextending overreaching themselves. I don't agree.

I think that Iran has always understood um you know this the dispute with Israel the dispute with the United States is never going to be resolved by a a a discussion and a talking. it's only going to be resolved finally on some form of battlefield one way or another. So I think you know people are ready for that now and I think the leadership is there for it. It's been changes in the military leadership elsewhere.

So I think it's it's quite it's very interesting and a new phase that's taking place and they're going to put the pressure on Trump and Trump is you know not someone who's used to being put under pressure like this has he's he will probably try and respond in some way do something um but Iran has things they can do they've notably left the blockage ships alone, but the 60 days is now over. Um, will they target the ships? I think, you know, I think Iran will play this well in my judgment because they are careful, always careful and thinking this through. I mean, yes.

I mean, you know, you you you sink a a carrier or something like that. I mean, you know, this is Pearl Harbor and everyone gets, you know, will go crazy. You don't have to sink it. I mean, you can just put a missile through its deck and then it's, you know, aircraft can't use it.

So, what's the point of it? It's just a lump of steel sitting in the sea. I mean so I think you know there will be um [clears throat] they will have some plans and um if Israel joins in I think it's as I said to you I think it's unlikely because quite clearly there are doubts I mean and even more doubts I would think now about what you know what would be the strategy of Israel what would they achieve nothing I mean you know they haven't succeeded ed in destroying the the um the missile capabilities. In fact, they're growing, not just reducing.

So, what would be so what would be the point? So, that's what I think about the next phase. I don't know if that makes sense to you. It makes perfect sense to me and both the case of Iran and the region that you when what do you make of the new agreement defense pack or security pack or maybe military pack?

I don't know what whatever they call it between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey. Who's the target of it? Does [clears throat] do they is that necessary to have a target for this defense back? It's all about the defensive sort of mindset about some about beyond going to war or making new moves on any country Iran or Israel or it's a deterrence on their part.

It's something new to the region. I think it wasn't there before this war started. this is a new dynamic in the region. I don't know how do you see that?

I you know I I think it's partly a question that you know many of the states particularly Sunni states are feeling um a diminished and their identity in question and particularly states like Saudi Arabia which is in a real vice because you know the their um fuel sales their petroleum sales have gone down I believe by 74%. I won't guarantee that's the right figure because I'm not an you have to ask the experts on the on on it but that's more or less right I think and you know they needed $100 uh oil just to get along in the government. [clears throat] So what do you do? Well, Mr.

Bessend will not allow you to sell treasures. So, how you going to how you going to fill the gap? And that's a big crisis. So, I think Saudi is you know feels that the United States has uh left them in the lurch and at the same time it wants you know other hands to hold.

I mean Russia and China are far away and they don't do this easily. So they've latched on to Pakistan. But this puts Pakistan in a great bind because Pakistan of course you know when when the supreme leader was assassinated. Um the Pakistani she rose up and burnt the consulate to the ground there was severe violent rioting and they haven't forgotten that.

and the Pakistani leadership have um you know the the the field marshal um has almost no support in Pakistan very little support. Imran Khan had support and he put him in range the circumstances in which he was um [clears throat] uh failed to win a conference vote. Um so um and now they are quite desperate for money. So I think all of this is sort of geared towards this Washington.

They want to show Washington that they're, you know, they were mediators and they're still, you know, the vital link in the um in the Middle Eastern [clears throat] sphere that, you know, Pakistan has to be taken as a a key player. I don't think America sees them as key players. [clears throat] And um I think that Saudi Arabia, as I say, you know, probably only attacked um the Hashad because they didn't want to attack the Yemenes who were probably more likely responsible for the destruction of at least one of the Aramco um facilities. I mean, both have been both on the east and west side of that pipeline to Yanbo have been attacked.

So I think there was a you know I think the Saudis really don't want to go to war with Yemen although they're now at war with Yemen. I mean the war has become much more intense. The Yemenes have been the Houthis have been attacking the Saudiled linked forces in the south quite mercilessly and they've been sort of sent fleeing. Um so so so what is it um so what is it um uh uh that uh you know Turkey is not going to get involved and go and go sorry Turkey is not going to get involved um in a war against um uh uh is not going to get involved in a war um at all of uh in against um the Houthies.

Um why should they they won't do that? Uh and I don't think so I don't think I think this is performative. Not really you know we talk about nuclear power in Pakistan but I think it's performative. What's import Alistister, what is significant in my opinion in Iran is that the new leadership, the new head of the security council in Iran n national security council is he was the head of IRGC for the entirety of the Iran Iraq war.

His his doctrine his sort of view is different from the previous one. Moshin Rai. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No, no. He's uh he's and and he's been the adviser to the Supreme Leader during this recent period.

So, he's been intimately involved in all these things. Very important changes that took place I think in the security council. Yeah. And you know the the tougher stance that came out of the security council the document that they issued um you know was tougher language and it had one other new thing in it because it talked in theou talks about Lebanon and allies.

In this document, in the security council document, it said yes, Lebanon, Palestine, Palestine for the first time was mentioned specifically, which I think is an important element in the context of what I told you earlier that we may see something happening um uh you know in the West Bank, Gaza and Iran maybe find itself involved. So all these things you know are uh are are complicated. So I think yes I mean Iran has come together with a leadership that um uh understands that you know things cannot be left as they are. Theou probably was not consequential.

So they have to put the pressure on Trump and will do so um not by going full out to war but by you know careful um structured um uh military operations against um targets in the Gulf or or elsewhere. Yeah. Thank you so much Alistister for being with us today. Great pleasure.

My pleasure as always. Before wrapping up, please go to Substack the, you know, the Conflicts forum on Substack. Follow Alistister and you can subscribe to his Substack. You're going to learn a lot because he's putting his articles together with Ashley and she she she writes on your Substack as well.

I I think you you both control the Substack account and it's amazing. go there and follow Alistister and Ashley on their substack. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much and all the best. We'll see what happens. Yeah.

Bye for now. Bye for now. [music]

[admin]

Rare Pallas’s cat spotted in northern Iran highlands in notable wildlife sightings
Monday, 17 August 2026 9:28 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 17 August 2026 9:28 AM ]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... -sightings


A Pallas’s cat captured on camera in Iran’s northern Mazandaran province.

A rare Pallas’s cat has been captured on camera in Iran’s northern Mazandaran province, in a notable sighting of one of the country’s least-studied wild cat species.

The video was recorded in the heights of Nava, upstream of Larijan, and shared on social media on Saturday by Majid Batabi, a nature enthusiast.

Known for its broad, relatively flat face, round eyes, small rounded ears, short legs, and exceptionally dense coat, the Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) has a distinctive appearance that helps it survive some of the harshest environments in its range.

The species is primarily found across the cold steppes and mountainous regions of Central Asia, with Iran forming the westernmost part of its global distribution.

In Iran, it has been reported in mountainous areas of the Alborz and Zagros ranges, although its distribution and population size remain poorly understood.

Pallas’s cat is not dependent on dense forests. It generally favors open, high-altitude habitats with rocky terrain, grass cover, cold conditions, and sufficient prey.

In some parts of Iran, the species has also been documented using cavities in juniper trees as shelter and breeding sites.

The animal is largely solitary and highly elusive, making sightings in the wild extremely rare.

As a result, photographs and videos obtained through chance encounters or camera traps can provide valuable information about its presence and distribution.

The sighting in Mazandaran is particularly significant because it highlights the ecological importance of the province’s mountainous habitats beyond the better-known Hyrcanian forests.

The presence of suitable high-altitude, open and rocky habitats means that the region can support species that are not typically associated with forest ecosystems.

The Pallas’s cat is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Least Concern at the global level.

However, local populations can still face threats, including habitat loss and fragmentation, declining prey populations, and attacks by herding dogs.

The latest sighting therefore not only offers a rare glimpse of an elusive species but also underscores the need for greater research and protection of Iran’s highland ecosystems, where the presence of wildlife can remain undetected for years, according to environmental experts.

[admin]

Iran's $30,000 Troop Bounty STUNS Trump, US Navy DONE | Larry Johnson & Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 4 hours ago #iran #usnavy #trump

Larry Johnson and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson discuss Iran's announcement of a shocking offensive now that the MoU is officially dead. Trump is lashing out as the news about the state of the US Navy gets worse and worse.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. It's Danny Haiphong. As you can see, I am joined by former CIA analyst Larry Johnson and former chief of staff uh Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. And now we go over the latest developments here.

First, we begin with Iran has given the United States just a couple of weeks now to meet its demands or it is going to shift to an offensive posture and launch a timely and precise military attack. This is according to Iranian officials. They are demanding that they go back to the United States does to the MOU demands. Now, Iran has also placed a $30,000 bounty on US soldiers.

According to Tran's army chief, uh uh uh Iranians who kill or capture troops uh uh uh US troops will be awarded this amount. This comes as the Wall Street Journal reports that Iran has devised its plan for this offensive which includes accelerated missile production and cutting the seven main undersea internet cables in the Persian Gulf as well as potential ground incursions. Now, the news keeps getting worse and worse for the US Navy with another US warship suffering major problems. This time the destroyer USS Benfold suffered a gen generator failure on July 24th, leaving the crew in the South China Sea for 4 days without [clears throat] power in the blistering heat.

Now, the USS George Washington, another aircraft carrier, is supposed to replace the USS Lincoln in the coming days, but sailors on this ship, are also reporting deplorable conditions, including images being sent to families such as these with the food, as well as huge plumbing issues with toilets and other uh very necessary amenities being malfunctioning. So, here is Donald Trump. He says there are no talks right now going on between the US and Iran and 2 minutesthat the blockade remains in full force despite the fact that theou has expired and or could very well be on the way because of it. So how we begin with you Larry uh your reaction especially to this news of a bounty on US troops now and the fact that thisou has expired and uh Iran appears ready to go on the offensive in order to meet these demands.

What do you make of this? Yeah, I don't I don't think much of their threat to go on the offensive. They said in weeks, how many weeks? Two weeks, three weeks, five weeks, eight weeks, you know, when you when you leave it very vague like that, I don't take that as a serious threat.

If they say by the end of next week, do this or else, all right, that's a serious deadline. Uh so what what they've offered is a very squishy deadline. But you know Iran Iran's sitting in the catbird seat right now. 3 minutesThe they are uh not isolated as Washington DC and particularly Scott Bessant are want to believe.

com that [snorts] goes into this in pretty pretty great detail. Wessenceence, you know, he's he's he's already announced that he's launched operation economic fury. And then he's now going to launch operation really really economic fury or a bigger bigger economic fury, something like that. Uh the problem with that is he's operating from a set of assumptions that a Iran has no alternative but to use the US dollar.

Two, Iran is completely blocked in their only access to the outside world is through the straight of Hormuz and the United States has this massive blockade in place. Well, the facts are otherwise. Uh unlike 2015 when Iran was effectively surrounded including Russia and China had signed on to the JCPOA sanctions. Now those don't exist.

Uh yeah the JCPOA sanctions are still in place but Russia and China told the United States to go and the United Nations to go pound sand that they weren't going to abide by him. They've opened up uh significant trade relations. In fact, it was within weeks of the JCPOA being uh walked away from by Donald Trump, Russia and China moved quickly to establish and began joint military exercises with Iran. The planning for those exercises started, I believe, in July of 2018.

Trump had walked away uh on in May of 2018 from uh the the JCPOA. So you already had the beginnings of military cooperation between Iran, China and Russia. They've that cooperation has expanded significantly to economic cooperation as well as provision of military equipment, essential military equipment as well as intelligence to Iran during the war with the United States. So far from far from being isolated, Iran's now got more open borders and more trade opportunities today than it had 10 years ago because it can go north through the Caspian Sea, west, through Tajikhstan, over the east, the new sort of new Silk Highway and then through across the border with Pakistan.

Pakistan has opened six land routes into Iran. Now all this comes up against the United States and oh we're going to have this blockade. We got a wall of steel. Well, uh the entire US military is in a state of near disaster.

Uh we have seen it now. It's not just the reports that the Abraham Lincoln is short of of food and that sailors were trying to commit suicide. Uh it is it's across the Navy. I've had I've spoken with the mothers of uh two sailors and one Marine.

a mother whose son served on the Tripoli, another mother whose son just came off the submarine. I didn't get the submarine's name, and the mother of of a Marine off the off the Boxer. All told the same damn story. Their kids came home losing between 10 and 30 pounds a piece.

Their kids had terrible food, no mail. The support system sucked. didn't matter whether you were on uh you know something like the tripoly a destroyer or or uh the boxer which is a marine amphibious ship or a submarine and we all know it applies as well to the USS Abraham Lincoln that what happened is some or group of morons at the department of war back in the day when it was called department of defense said you know what We got these four combat fast combat supply ships. We can save $30 million per ship if we just get rid of two of them.

Oh, great idea, guys. Cuz those four ships supply basically the all the all the ammunition and the food and the hygiene products that the ships need. And you got to have the fast combat ships to keep up with the aircraft carriers and destroyers, etc. Yeah.

So, they got rid of those. So they cut the force in half and then they got the warehouses where they stored all this stuff that they were going to deliver. It got blown up in Bahrain and United Arab Emirates. Whoops.

So now they're short across the board. And yet they're expected to go out and conduct intercept operations at a time when you got sailors lining up to commit suicide. And oh, by the way, forgot to mention before that Tripoli deployed, they decided, h they don't need any chaplain on board. Let's pull them off.

So, in other words, Donald Trump and Pete Hexath have created a a tremendous shitow. Yeah, Colonel Wilkerson, uh, to you. You know, there were reports earlier this week that the USS Lincoln's problem in particular are tied to the fact that the US also lost its supply and logistics centers because of Iranian strikes in Bahrain. Now, they've been shifted all the way to Diego Garcia, which has led to part of the uh problems that Larry uh has mentioned, but certainly can't contribute to all of it.

your thoughts on this and uh and this Iranian bounty. It seems like that it seems like it reflects uh two different differing directions on where this war is headed and where the US and Iran are in this war. Your thoughts? m.

Uh and I did a little checking. I think it's valid. I got this video of Pete Hegsth, Secretary of War, defense, whatever, charlatan par excalance, giving a talk and it was typical Hegathth in terms of exaggeration, propaganda, lies and so forth. But I listened to it a second time and I wrote down the main points and as he went through his remarks, he was describing allegedly and he said he was describing Iran and the condition of Iran post this massive [clears throat] massive strike campaign that the United States has been executing.

First of all, he said Iran's ballistic missile capacity was destroyed. Then he said, furthermore, its ability in its industrial base such as it is to build more ballistic missiles is completely destroyed. Third, its entire industrial base for making anything from drones to missiles to missile carriages to warheads to whatever is gone. We destroyed it.

Totally destroyed. Then he talked about the usual things. The navy is totally destroyed. The air force is totally destroyed.

The leadership's morale is on the bottom. They cannot fight much longer. They are defeated. I left out quite a few things he said, but they were all in that cast.

And I listened to it again and I looked at my notes. " What he was doing was describing to a tea, as Larry just very graphically illustrated much of the state of the United States military across the board. And of course, the state of the conflict across the board. That's what he was doing.

So I had to listen to it again. And then I remarked to myself, my god, this man is telling the truth, but he's telling the truth about us rather than about Iran. This is the most warped psychological warfare campaign ingredient I have ever witnessed. Has he gone mad?

But that's what I heard. And and it you could not list a more cogent major issue list of items describing another country involved in a war that better fit the big country involved in the war. Indeed, the country that started the war, the United States of America. So my question was, what gives?

Pey, what gives? But I agree with everything Larry said. Plus, yeah, and Larry uh you know, you mentioned Scott Bessant talking about how uh essentially the US is making Iran's economy screen. Well, Iran, you know, $30,000 US is is a very large amount uh when we're considering this bounty that the Iranian military has just put out there.

Uh it's a it's a big amount when it is converted into Iranian real. Uh so so talk about uh what you your reactions to this bounty that was announced and uh what is it do you think it says about this war? Because right now it seems like the United States that is hesitating uh you know in terms of restarting any attacks. You just have Trump with a similar antics talking about how the straight of hormuz is US territory and all of this but uh no real concerted action right now.

It almost feels like there's a a pause that has been pressed a pause button that's been pressed. So your thoughts? Well, I I I think it's just I think it's a little bit of a ham-handed psychological operation. a you don't have any US troops on the ground.

Uh the odds of putting US troops on the ground, I would say, are slim and none for no other reason, just the the logistical obstacles of doing it. You know, not saying that they wouldn't potentially serious seriously entertain trying to do it, but just overcome the logistical obstacles such as you are going to deliver them via a parachute or are they going to be on a landing an aircraft of some for form that lands on the ground and they jump off or because it's clearly not going to be an amphibious operation because we can't get our damn ships into the straight of Hormuz. So, you know, offering a $30,000 bounty for something that's not out there. Yeah.

It's at this point it's like offering a $30,000 bounty for a picture of the Loch Ness monster. Okay. It's because it's it's fictional. But I I think it's part of their psychological operation against the United States because what what Iran I don't think Iran necessarily set out to do this.

uh I don't think they may have believed that they would accomplish this and this I'm talking about is the depletion of critical US weapons systems. Now following up on the wisdom of Ambrose Beerus, a Civil War soldier veteran and then later journalist known for his uh being somewhat of a misenthrop. uh he he he described war as God's way of teaching Americans geography or at least he's credited with saying that. It's not clear if he did.

Well, it's turned out that this war has taught me a lot of other things going beyond geography. And one of those is that 80% I take that back. I got to be precise. 78% of the Pentagon weapons systems, the critical systems like Tomahawks, JASMs, etc.

uh they are rely upon rare earth minerals five categories or five types of rare earth minerals or form minerals and and tungsten being the fifth that are controlled by China. Gallium is is a particular one. In other words, if if we want to produce weapons to stock our military, both army, navy, marines, air force, with weapon systems that could be used in combat, we got to go begging to the Chinese. And the Chinese have figured this out.

Wait, we're selling them rare earths that they're going to then turn into weapons they're going to use against us. We're going to stop that. We're not that stupid. And so the China stopped it.

Here's the United States completely stymied with yeah the Congress Congress just appointed appropriated several billion dollars to uh to Lheed Martin. Hey, you got a bill. We need something for 14,000 of those pack three missiles as soon as possible. Guys, don't hold your breath cuz it's going to be years before they get that, not months.

Certainly not weeks. So, uh, here you have the United States exposed mil as a military weakling and that and from Iran's standpoint, I think part of their part of their strategy maybe not stated in public, but is to continue to stress and attit US capabilities because I tell you what, the longer those ships are deployed out there, the more combat ineffective they become. They don't become better, they degrade. It becomes worse.

And the problem of the logistics supply, they haven't fixed it because they're in denial. You got Hexus saying the families that say this are liars, that they're peddling fake news. As does Donald Trump. " Yeah.

God almighty. We we've never had such a a chorus of jackasses in charge in this country in mo in my memory. [clears throat] And Danny, the uh the visit to Lincoln and the appearance on her flight deck by Admiral Bradley Cooper will go down with George Bush's mission accomplished on his carrier. only in the Navy it will be judged as even more nefarious because he just went out there, landed on the carrier, did a couple of tours of this and that and came up and said everything was great.

Defying everything Larry just said, all of which is true, all of which is valid. I'm hearing from parents, too. And this is unconscionable in this particular instance. This is a four-star Navy admiral in charge of the entire central command.

And he is first of all in Israel's back pocket. All you have to do is check out the many times he has been there, the many times he's done the tour, the many times he's gone over to uh Foundation for Defense of Democracy or to some other Israel affiliate in Washington, the many promises he's made to the Israeli military. to know that like Tony Blinkin who is BB Netanyahu's alter ego assistant secretary of state Bradley Cooper is his in charge of the North Arabian Sea the Gulf of Oman and the Straight of Hamoose Navy Admiral only he's not in charge of any of that um unconscionable appearance and I mark my words it will go down with George Bush's appearance yeah well uh certainly Certainly uh the you know when it comes to the US Navy it it is quite something that uh you know Cooper who has been also rumored to have been uh you know conniving with Israel for another possible strike is also the face of this naval disaster. But uh and Danny it's two in a row.

It's two in a row because the gorilla before him was also of the same stripe. So that's how much of a lock Israel has on our appointment of command of that combatant command. Yeah, Larry, you know, the Washington Post is uh now characterizing this as a quagmire. Do you agree with this?

[laughter] And do you agree with this? And and what what do you make of this uh whole notion that Trump is actually bragging about no negotiations? Because as you said, the longer this blockade goes on, the worse the situation gets for the US Navy. It does seem like something that will have to be addressed eventually, right?

Or maybe not right. Your thoughts on that? Well, Trump Trump bragging about it reminds me of the guy that lost the Boston Marathon race, finished last, bragging about his last pace finish. " Uh, may have taken two days.

uh you know what we see with Donald Trump someone completely divorced from reality completely enabled by uh sycophants who re you know refuse to tell him the truth or if they do tell him the truth he refuses to listen and punishes those that do that have the audacity to tell him the truth. You know, look, this the the what we've talked about the Navy, but we're we're looking at this problem, let's call it the mental health problem of the US military is goes across all branches. Uh, last November, I I one of my one of my buddies, a recently retired officer, West Point grad, he's actually the president of his West Point class, so you know, not not exactly some, you know, low-life complainer. Uh he sent me a copy of the letter that Dan Driscoll issued last November to all commands, all officers and NCOs.

And it said very simply, you are hereby ordered to have daily contact with your soldiers. Make sure you speak to everyone to ensure that they're okay. Huh? You got to talk.

You're telling me that the thei situation is so bad within the army that they made want to make sure that the officers are talking to their troops so they don't kill themselves, which is exactly what the letter was for. This this means you've got a crisis [snorts] and that that to my knowledge that order has not been rescended. Cyber Command uh up in Fort me, Maryland. Apparently, five suicides.

I don't remember if it was May or June, but that created some discomfort and alarm. And then the the officer I mentioned for the former the West Point grant as president of his of his class when classmates die and we're not talking you know he's not an old guy like Colonel Wilkerson and me uh he he's he's really the age of my son in his 40s. Um he's got to figure out do you do you list guys that commit suicide? idealist them as combat casualties or something else.

And he's saying he's having to deal with an uncomfortable lot number of those kinds of issues and dealing with distraught families on top of it. So, you know, we're not looking here at just one isolated, oh, it's the aircraft carrier, it's screwed up, that's just No, it's it's Abraham Lincoln. It's the Tripoli. It's the Boxer.

It's the what was the other one? the bander off uh the one that went four days without air conditioning and working toilets. Uh and then the submarines and it it's across the services and the when you get a problem like that uh you know the old saying news like that doesn't get better with age you deal with it. But that's not what we have going on here.

We have denial. Trump denies it. H Seth denies it. Everything's great.

It couldn't be better. Brad Cooper denies it. And man, they keep denying that and it will bite them in the ass. And you know, whether it's a a failure on deck of one of the carriers where, you know, planes are crashing uh because of crews are either so tired or uh so unfocused or but it it's going to lead to some losses and completely avoidable.

But it's just this complete failure of leadership that we're seeing right now. Well, uh, uh, Colonel Wilkerson, I wanted your comments on the, uh, regional situation now because, uh, earlier, uh, you know, this week, the beginning of this week, Trump actually threatened to bomb Oman because he's unhappy with the country's negotiations and deal, although there is no official deal uh, right now between the two countries on the straight of four moves. Also, uh, today the UAE is saying that their sirens are up. There are, uh, uh, reports that it could be Yemen or it could be Iran firing missiles at the UAE after thisou has expired.

And of course, as uh, the continued aggression of Saudi Arabia brings more and more consequences to the Saudi regime. So, uh, your thoughts on this, Colonel Wilkerson, the regional situation and how it's all spilling over now that the Iran war is, I guess, uh, the come to Jesus, uh, awareness moment of the Washington Post turning into a quagmire. Well, if you look at the operational level, um, tactical level up to the operational level, what Iran has succeeded succeeded in doing very clearly is they've got a two-front campaign going with essentially the principal character, if you will. I won't even call them a country anymore.

In the middle being Saudi Arabia, you've got Alansar, the Houthis on one side and the Red Sea, and then you've got Iran very formidably on the other side. And increasingly, you've got Iraq and people in Iraq who don't particularly care for the South either and are helping. And you've got u some real uh disturbances going on in Kurdistan, so-called Kurdistan in northern Iraq. And you've got um a situation over in Syria, which looks like is developing really kind of weirdly.

I won't pretend that I understand all the components of it, but you have Russia being uh amanable to having a different kind of presence on the coast of the Mediterranean there both for their airfield and their port facility and apparently having made a deal with Galani to that effect while at the same time Gelani is talking with Netanyahu and I'm quite confident Galani is not taken in by Netanyahu and that most of this is just gaining time or trying to gain a little bit of insight into what's planned and then on top of all that you've got Erdogan looking down on all with some uh violence of forethought particularly the Kurds who seem to be not so much in Kurdistan where the deal seems to be holding but you also have attacks on Barzani there which are coming from whom are they coming from Iran Iran has said no not coming from Iran so whom are they coming from um are they us playing uh again the duplicitous game with the Kurds in northern Iran or northern Iraq? Who knows? But there are a lot of characters playing in the region right now. None of whom seem to have a coherent game plan and all of whom seem motivated principally and I include Turkey in this Israel and what they see Israel doing and what Israel might possibly do in the future.

And so anything that's happening there even in terms of this new ala that's been formed in Saudi with Saudi Arabia at the center of it is mostly directed against Israel and will be seen to be that way if it ever comes to any kind of hot combat or real pressure put on anybody. So, and then you got Jared Kushner going and essentially listening to BBE and having BBE essentially tell him that he's not going to adhere to any of the things Kushner is sort of pro-form telling him are the agreements that have been made with regard to disarming Hamas with regard to what BB is doing which is continuing to kill the Palestinians every single day almost every hour even those in Gaza but certainly certainly those in the West Bank and certainly those north of Jerusalem and BB not doing anything about it and calling Trump at night and telling him now I'm I'm telling Jared this and I'm telling uh my audience this so that it gets into the press, both your press and my press, but I'm going to back off of it just as soon as I'm reelected. But I have to say these things, including I'm killing people now in Lebanon who aren't Hezbollah. They are Lebanese citizens I'm killing.

And I'm moving my lines ever so smartly northward. I'm doing all this because I can't stop and expect to be elected. But I'll stop it just as soon as I'm reelected. I guarantee you that, Mr.

President. And if Trump believes that, he's dumber than I think he is. Um, so we have some real ingredients brewing in the region that could make this an even more serious and more widespread conflict than what it pretends to be right now. And it's bad enough right now.

Yeah, Larry, your your thoughts on the regional situation. You know, Donald Trump also weighed in on the so-called Mecca defense pack, saying he's very happy to see it that they have recently and finally signed the Mecca joint defense agreement. shows the Middle East is coming together, how countries will be able to defend themselves in a more meaningful way. Congratulations to the great leadership of the three nations mentioned.

It's a big, bold, and important first step. Wow. Um, what does he mean important first step? But your thoughts on the regional situation there?

Yeah, it Well, I I think that that agreement, I call it the MeToo agreement, you know, Middle East Treaty Organization, METO. Um it's about as useless as tits on a bore hog at this point. Um because u you know number one um who are they going to defend against? Now they've already issued a joint declaration that an attack on one is an attack on all.

Allah sounds a lot like the article five of NATO treaty. " So again, it begs the question, who are they going to defend against? Then you get the issue of interoperability. Uh Turkeykey's largely a US-based uh technology foundation for its military as is Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan's largely a Chinesebased system. So integrating those two should be quite interesting. Uh and then uh apart from the language issues of getting them to uh work together uh you know just getting figure out what what kind of com communication systems are they going to uh operate with. So so it gets into uh if they're talking about conducting joint exercises.

Well um you know in my 32 minutesexperience the earliest you could ever conduct a joint exercise is 12 months after you make the decision to do it. simply because of the planning that's involved in getting those and pulling those off. And usually it's more like 18 months. So unless they started planning this several months ago, you start the clock running a couple of weeks back, you know, we're looking next year at the earliest, maybe next a year from November before they could actually conduct a joint military exercise.

So I don't know what they do in the meantime. So, yeah, this whole and the fact that Trump came out and endorsed it, I find pretty, you know, potentially disturbing because if Trump thinks this is a good idea, there's got to be something wrong with it. Um, or there's some other nefarious purpose of foot here. But but again this gets back to suggesting that the the Turks, the Pakistanis and the Saudis or at least the Turks and Pakistanis are inability to project military force outside of their country.

And I would argue not really. Yeah, Turkey could do it in neighboring Syria, but beyond that, having airlift capability to move a significant number of troops, they don't have that. So, it just there there are some logistical limitations that are naturally imposed on the process. And then it gets back to their experience.

What are they capable of doing? Uh we've already seen that the Saudis are incapable of defending themselves against the Houthis and even though Pakistan reportedly has uh deployed uh uh some troops uh with air defense systems into uh uh one of the Saudi air bases. They don't appear to have been very effective in stopping uh Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, your thoughts, uh, Colonel Wilkerson, especially on the idea that the United States, it seems like Donald Trump, uh, and the United States right now. Uh, there are reports that there the defense department is considering scaling back its US uh, military presence, especially with all the decisions that need to be made about whether these bases are rebuilt. I think you [laughter] think but uh but then you have these antics like threatening to bomb Oman which seem to be incredibly counterproductive even looking at this from a US empire perspective given that Oman is the other side of the straight of Hormuz that you would think the United States would want to curry favor with well threatening to bomb Oman certainly won't do that and that's the second time during this war that he's done this your thoughts on that well let me just say this about on taunt.

But I agree with Larry. I I make a wager. I know I don't have much life left, but in my lifetime, this on taunt will move against no one in in unison. No one.

Uh the only exception if it were ever to present itself in a massive sort of way that they could get away with without taking too many casualties would be taking action against Israel. for all the reasons that Larry mentioned and more. Don't think that'll ever happen either. Um, as far as Donald Trump goes and what he's trying to describe now, much like Hegsth was doing in that bizarre talk that I referred to earlier, what Donald Trump is trying to do is the same way that he has done many other things, but none as egregious as this, is to shape reality through his rhetoric.

And he uses all manner of rhetoric, both pro and con and angry and peaceful and you name it, in order to try and shape what is happening. He's going to fail. He's going to fail objectively because the facts on the ground are going to so defy what he's saying. Which is why you see his poll ratings dropping like rocks.

I mean, I saw a pew the other day that put his approval rating at 26%. Um, I don't think you'll find it above 30% anywhere in any poll that's been done in the last week or so. It's tubing. It's falling apart for him.

And it's falling apart to a certain extent. Not quite with the elacrity and speed for Trump, but for the Republican party as well. And the midterms are how many days away? Um, so a lot of this rhetoric is for domestic consumption, but it's not going to work, I don't think.

And I mean that means we're in for some sort of really rude surprise I think with regard to the midterms if they develop the way that I right now think they're going to develop. But this is this is just a farce what's happening right now. The the lies that are being told by all the principal look at what Bessant is talking about. Bessant is lying through his teeth.

Look at the bond market. Look at Japan and the strength of the yen. Look at what's happening to those people who for years have told me, "We know we're going away demographically. We know we have problems, but our post office accounts are really flush and we're doing fine.

We living good. We're living good. The high school closed, the junior high closed. Don't have any kids in the street anymore, but me and grandma are living good.

Me and mama are living good. They aren't living good now. The yen is collapsing. This this whole scene is partly if not largely our creation.

That would have happened anyway with this inexorable movement from the east and such. But it didn't happen have to happen so precipitously. An Asia scholar recently wrote and these were his exact words. [clears throat] The dogs barked and there was Ukraine.

The dogs barked and there was Japan. Look at where Ukraine is right now. Look at where Japan is right now. And who taught the dogs to bark?

I know who taught the dogs to bark. I didn't need him to tell me the United States of America because we did all this and we're doing it even more intensely now that we realize we don't have anything left but the Western Hemisphere. And I'm not even sure we have that. You know, they they started with Venezuela.

They're going to move on Cuba. They're going to move on Denmark. maybe some other places that are localized, but in essence, we couldn't lick a flea in the in our own hemisphere if it really wanted to object and join forces with some of the other fleas. So, we are going to retrench.

That's what we're saying right now. Listen to Kobe. Listen to the other people who are speaking in the voice of and for the Pentagon. We are going to retrench.

and we're going to retrench because we are being licked from Ukraine to Japan. And our allies know it. And they're in a quandry right now, particularly South Korea and Japan. And if I'm throwing people in here who really count, the Indonesians also one of the biggest nations in the world.

300 million people almost fast country, good navy, really worried right now about where the Pacific theater is headed. And it's all because of us. We're screwing up from one end of the world to the other. You you can't make this stuff up.

Well, Larry, uh this is what Donald Trump is doing uh in his time. Uh not uh 40 minutesaddressing anything that Colonel Wilkerson just said, but uh talking about how the straight of horror moves is now a new US territory. And now Larry, I want to ask you, what is the point of these kind of social media propaganda messaging, if we can even call it propaganda, since the effectiveness is very much in question, but nevertheless, uh, Donald Trump does this almost, [clears throat] you know, and the timing seems pretty impeccable. Usually, it's in a time of a pretty grave problem, crisis.

Uh, this one being, I guess, the expiration of theou, not much going on with the war. US Navy, as you outlined, not doing too well. Why does Donald Trump though make these kind of comments? It's they seem so far a field.

Well, he thinks all all he has to do is gaslight the American public and they'll believe it. And surprisingly, a number do. Yeah. I mean, that's what's sort of shocking.

But, uh, he is, uh, and I don't know if he really believes it himself. If he does, he's engaged with confabulation, you know, saying something completely false and believing it's true. Uh because, you know, you follow the logic of it. Well, if we control the straight of Hormuz, why isn't uh all all of the commodities, not just oil, but liquid natural gas, ura, sulfur, helium.

Why isn't all that starting to flow out? Well, it's not flowing out because we don't control the straight of Hermoose and because the United States has basically instituted a blockade. I I think in in some to some degree Iran is allowing that to be used as an excuse to keep some of the other economic assets bottled up inside this the strait inside the Persian Gulf in order to put more pressure on the global economy. Now that pressure is growing and we saw with like even the stock market today in the United States is down.

Why? Because of the rising yields on the US bonds and the rising price of oil/ gasoline diesel aviation fuel. Uh the one thing that is now starting to hit because up up until say about a week two weeks ago most countries in you know major countries were able to mitigate the loss of oil that came was coming out of the Persian Gulf by drawing on their own strategic reserves. Those reserves are now basically empty.

There's no more, you know, if their mother hubard go into the cupboard, the cupboard is bare. So now the actual effect of the shortage of 20% uh of the 20 to 25% of the world's supply of oil is now starting to hit the markets. Just starting. And that is going to lead to a spiraling of prices.

You're already seeing it in Europe with diesel. Diesel's gone up dramatically. Yep. But so this is global.

This is this is not an isolated to one geographic region. This is now a global phenomena and it doesn't matter how much processing various refineries want to do. They simply do not have enough supply of the of the oil that was coming out of the Persian Gulf that's now no longer there. And it it's just that simple.

And you go I I wrote about Besson as well with his delusional nonsense that oh Straight Hermuz isn't important because we're just going to build pipelines go right around it. You know liquid natural gas doesn't travel through a pipeline. Urea and sulfur does not travel through a pipeline. Helium does not travel through a pipeline.

Yet all of those, you know, when you're looking at ura and sulfur, that accounts for 30 to 35% of the global supply. LG 25% of the global supply. Helium 40% of the global supply. If you're telling me that you're taking that quantity of things, essential items out of the global supply and the economies are still going to work well.

Sorry. Uh you are mistaken. And just to amplify that, Danny, the programs that we work with at state like the World Food Program and others who provide to the global south principally, but elsewhere too, food in emergencies, um are now estimating that it ain't going to be 50 million people that are on the minimum rations and starving to death. It's probably going to be 60 to 70 million people.

And all of what Larry just said is a big byproduct or not a byproduct but a big instigator of this massive starvation. Yeah, great uh great points. Really important. Well, I want to ask you maybe Colonel Wilkerson if you wanted to uh continue here uh talking about the state of the US empire after all that we've just covered with Iran.

You know, as Larry said earlier, Russia is not wasting any time to uh you know, intensify its uh key trade with Iran, espec in in things like dual components and other things to help it resupply militarily. But China as it was uh reported on across the western mainstream media has also intensified its ice silk road through the Arctic Sea uh alongside with Russia to essentially create another uh key trade route that bypasses uh US uh influence altogether. So what do you make of the state of the US empire as a whole, Colonel Wilkerson? Now that the Iran war is in this very curious place and as you said the United States militarily has had its butt kicked essentially from Ukraine to Iran.

Your thoughts? Well, Putin is allowing this to be built that way by the Chinese, but this is really a Russian initiative. Russia's been working on it for some time. the 53% of the soontobe, if not already navigable Arctic, the so-called Northwest Passage that runs in the South Route runs along the coast of Russia.

53% of that is along the coast of Russia. As I just said, China was invited in by Russia because China had been pressing uh every ever since they became an observer at the Arctic Council, they've been pressing for more presence in the Arctic. And of course, we compelled Russia, China to come closer and closer and closer. So now, China is naming this their maritime silk road, the first one.

It's actually going to go by water rather than by land, which is an exception for China because one of the things they were trying to do and are doing in large part is to get commerce off the dominated by the by the empire realm, the oceans, US territory, and get it on the land, Chinese territory. Um, but this is an interesting development because we've been up there for the last five years, six years if you count the submarine patrols and such, trying to assess what's happening, trying to figure out how how serious they are. And we have determined that they are deadly serious and will probably be in conssonance with the water becoming navigable by almost any type of commercial ship very shortly, if not already. at least a good portion of it.

Um, but we we are way behind the power curve. About all we have is an occasional broken down icebreaker or barred icebreaker from Finland or from Norway and that's not 48 minutesmuch. And submarines. Um, we we're way behind the power curve on this and we don't like it.

And so look for another conflict arena developing quickly between us and Russia, China, and it'll be along this maritime silk road. All to say that this inexraable power I keep talking about is moving, moving, moving. And it's benign inexorable power. For the most part, China does not push bombs, bullets, bayonets, and sanctions out in front of its BARI or alongside the flanks of its barri.

What it pushes is many trillions of dollars in development and aid and assistance. And people like it. People are more or less receptive to this kind of development. There are some problems on the flanks at times.

There are problems in South America and elsewhere when China is a little bit too outfront about it. But 49 minutesbasically, they're succeeding and we don't like this at all. And what we should be doing is developing a whole paniply of diplomatic maneuvers to accommodate this, to assist it where it is truly beneficial, especially to people who wouldn't have anything if it weren't for that. and to maybe be diplomatically antagonistic about where areas where we think it impinges on our real security interests, but basically cooperative and collaborative, not challenging it, not falling back as it were into our own readout and telling the world to go to hell while we beat up on people like Cuba and Venezuela and so forth.

That's not the way to deal with this, but that's the way Donald Trump has chosen to deal with it. Yeah. Well, I'll pull this up. But I don't know if you all saw this report.

Of course, this is a Chinese, you know, a South China Morning Post, but it is a Chinese study. Nearly 200 country study shows that China's Beltro initiative cuts debt and corruption in countries that engage with it. Data analysis spanning more than 20 years across 197 countries and regions challenge the debt trap diplomacy narrative. So in this study it was found that a significant portion uh of debt actually in these countries is cut when they do invest in Chinese infrastructure.

And here you see some of those uh graphs in the study. But Larry, your thoughts on this and the state of the US empire uh you know same question to you uh now that the world is in the situation that it's in regarding these wars. Well, the steps the steps that uh it didn't just start with Trump, but what Trump has been doing with Bass and others that every every effort to quote save or strengthen the American empire backfires and has the exact opposite effect. um the imposition of sanctions on Russia following the start of the special military operation uh when they invaded Ukraine back in February 2022 has inspired Russia and China to accelerate their development of alternative financial systems.

And as a result of that development and the creation, they've actually created the infrastructure. China stops buying US bonds. It's getting rid of US bonds. It's buying gold.

Gold now has surpassed the US dollar as a reserve currency in terms of more people have bought invested in gold from foreign governments than they're investing in US dollars. So what the United States has done is basically created a demand for not just one or two countries for a hundred countries to want to build up their economic relations with China and be and operate outside the realm of the petro dollar. And so the the these counterproductive policies and we just saw it yesterday with Trump at visa via Oman. Instead of talking to Oman as a friend, Trump threatens to bomb him.

I mean, you know, for Christ's sake, you know, this is how you conduct your public diplomacy by by threatening to blow people up. And then what you they're they're supposed to sit back and say, "Oh, we're sorry. We yeah, we we shouldn't have thought about that or done that. " So, this is uh the United States is busy shooting itself in every possible appendage it has, including the crotch.

That's next. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Well, in our uh you know, in our final five or so minutes here uh with you two, maybe Colonel Wilkerson, uh your thoughts now on the Ukraine front, any updates you have there.

Uh there has been very little activity from the Trump administration publicly on addressing anything that's going on there. Just more reports on Russia striking Ukraine and of course the uh much hyped Ukraine sending more and more drones into Russian territory. Well, I think it's basically over. Just we're waiting for the fat lady to sing.

And the fat lady's married to Zalinsky, so something's got to break here sooner or later. I just hope it doesn't break adversely. And and with respect to an actual attack on NATO, either facilities in a NATO country or maybe even more pinpoint strikes and devastating strikes on NATO facilities inside Ukraine. [snorts] Um, as you were talking, I was thinking about the other aspect of this.

We're looking at as as that Asia scholar was pretending. We're looking at the policies begun in my administration, but only in the sense that they were kicked in the butt by 911, just as BB has been kicked in the butt by October 7th. We don't have a really good investigation there yet. Um, they were started by Bill Clinton and they progressed through every single president since with a minimal hiatus with Barack Obama as he tried to toy with some of the things he could have done to stop some of the initiatives but he didn't and then given a real kick in the butt especially with regard to Europe by winking blinking and nod and their President Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

We are paying the consequences for what Clinton started. We kicked in the butt big time in the George W. Bush administration and everyone's been doing ever since with Biden even having a secretary of state who could have been Netanyahu Secretary of State just as easily probably was and de facto and a national security adviser who went right along with that. So we have built this crisis everywhere.

It is growing to gargantuan proportions now all on our own. Major help. I can't even begin to emphasize how much major help came from CIA, SIS as it used to be called, MI6 now, and MSAD. Major help.

Sometimes even out of the realm of presidential approval help still going on. still happening today as the intelligence services with their billions of dollars of assets and their absolute almost sacrosan operating environment in terms of their own leaderships oftentimes doing things their leadership doesn't know anything about. We are building more and it's not going to be conducive to our future at all and no 56 minutesone's doing anything to stop it as Larry pointed out. It's just it's just rolling on like a juggernaut.

Well, Larry, uh your final words current work because I know you do have to head out. Uh so, you can certainly do that. And Larry, you can offer your final words here. Yeah.

No, it's it's I think I think what's going to unfold in the coming weeks is going to be an economic crisis which is going to further limit uh put put uh constraints on what Donald Trump can actually do on the foreign policy front. He's going to he's going to be so busy trying to put out domestic fires, he's not going to have time to think about the foreign policy dimensions. I agree with that 100%. I I don't think he can think about the domestic situation now other than God, what do I do?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 20 20 cents for the first time in history, meaning that prices are likely to go up uh in great numbers uh especially with regard to food, which was something I think something already happening and something that I think a both of you have talked about on this program too.

So, a lot to watch out for. One of the things we need is we need a steel mesh net trap on all exit route for Scott Besson. [laughter] Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah.

That summer gun is going to be running and [laughter] yeah, Soros's guy there. Well, gentlemen, it was great to uh be with both of you. I want to make sure everybody knows in the video description below is Sonar 21, Larry's blog, as well as Transition Protocol, which Larry helps co-host. I also help contribute to that.

So, subscribe to that channel, too. Uh, also hit the like button before you go. That helps boost the show in YouTube's algorithm. I want to thank all 58 minutesthe moderators, viewers.

I want to thank the single super chatter here today farad and I want to also let you know that all the plays support this channel in the video description below. So do check those out. Patreon subsecore but uh Larry Johnson and Colonel Wilkerson will be back with me I'm sure very soon tomorrow I'm on with Pepe Escobar same time 1 pm Eastern time August 19th. Until next time everyone take care.

See you in the next show. Thanks Danny. Lighter.

[admin]

Oil Products Hit Record Prices As Iran War Escalates
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Aug 18, 2026

Today (August 18), the spread between the price of a barrel of WTI crude oil and a barrel of diesel fuel hit US$100 for the first time ever.

At the same time, the price of gasoline in the United States hit the highest level ever for the month of August.

The deteriorating conditions in energy markets come against the backdrop of escalating wars in West Asia.

Dimitri Lascaris explains why the world is hurtling toward an energy cliff.



Transcript

Now, I asked the president about these parallel talks that are taking place between Iran and Oman about control of the Strait of Hormuz. " Hello, this is Demetri Lceras coming to you from Toronto, Canada on August 18th, 2026 for Reason to Resist. As you just saw, Donald Trump has done it again. He has threatened to destroy a country that bends the knee to Washington.

Uh you see, Oman uh actually hosts at least one US military base. As you can see from this map that was published earlier this year by Al Jazzida. In the lower right hand quadrant of this map, you see the country of Oman and a red dot. That is the known military base.

There may be other facilities that are used in some way by the United States military. Now, why would the president of the United States publicly humiliate a country in this vitally important region that is willing to host US military forces? One possible answer is insanity. Another is grotesque incompetence.

And yet a third is mind-boggling hubris. These three answers, by the way, are not mutually exclusive, unfortunately for us all. Needless to say, Donald Trump's latest acts of psychotic World Wrestling Federation Machismo are not reassuring the international oil and gas markets. And so today in this report, we're going to update you on the looming global energy catastrophe, one that has already begun to unfold, as well as the US government's deepening humiliation in West Asia.

Before we get into it, please remember to like and share this video if you find it to be informative. And if you're not already a subscriber to Reason to Resist, please do become one. We are aiming to get to 200,000 subscribers on the 2-year anniversary of Reason to Resist, which is the end of August approximately, and we're almost at 196,000. Uh you can help us to expand our reach uh by becoming a subscriber now.

Uh let's get into it. So, US Treasure Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, not the sharpest tool in the shed, in my humble opinion, recently provoked howls of laughter by claiming that the strait of Hormos had become irrelevant. com. Uh no, I may be mistaken about that.

I think this is actually uh the Washington Post uh that uh suddenly the straight of Hormuz is irrelevant to the US. That's the headline. And then in the body of the article, it says, "A look at the day ahead in European and global markets. Asian stocks are mostly firmer, blah blah blah.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant over the weekend claimed the strait would become irrelevant, that's the word he used, as oil would eventually be redirected through pipelines, giving analysts the impression the White House was trying to wash its hands of the whole affair. Now, there's plenty of problems with this claim that pipelines can replace the Strait of Hormuz as a means of delivering essential commodities from West Asia to markets outside the region. But uh the more fundamental question is if in fact the straight of Hormuz is irrelevant or on the way to becoming irrelevant, why the hell is Donald Trump threatening to bomb the out of a country in the region that is friendly to the United States in many ways if it interferes in the opening of the Strait of Hodus. 4 minutesPredictably, the Wall Street Journal weighed in today on why Trump is threatening to bomb the out of Oman.

And here is the headline of their piece. Why Trump is threatening again to bomb Oman. This is not the first time, as the headline notes, that he's done that. He seems to have a penchant for humiliating uh the Sultan of Oman.

And uh the subline is some US officials see Oman as favoring Iran while others say Trump is lashing out over failures to make a nuclear deal. And uh in the body of the article it goes on to say this. I don't think they behave very well but we handled them very easily just like we do others. Trump told reporters Monday today in the Oval Office.

He didn't go into specifics about what Omani officials did that drew his eye. US officials, remember those words folks, we see them so often in the corporate media nowadays, said the Oman picture was murky. The Gulf country that borders a straight of Hormos to the south is in talks with Iran to hold more commercial traffic in the waterway. US officials, there they are again, those nasty, everpresent, unnamed US officials, said those negotiations were progressing and could relieve pressure on the global energy market and higher domestic gas prices.

I say Uh whatever is happening between Oman and Iran has nothing to do, as the Iranians have said repeatedly, and the Omanis have not contradicted them to do with the re the reopening of the straight of Hormuz. This is a separate matter. uh they're talking the Omanis and the Iranis about Iranians about the future management of the straight of Hormuz once it's opened but Iran has set as we've discussed program many times quite ownorous conditions for the reopening of the straight of Hormuz and they have refused to do so steadfastly uh ever since Trump's latest shenanigans uh and then it goes on to say this article there is lingering concern within the administration that Oman could aid Iran in broking a nuclear deal more favorable to Dan feeding Trump's anger. This is sheer delusion, folks.

Okay, there are no nuclear negotiations going on at this stage. I I think the chances of the United States and Iran entering into negotiations about Iran's nuclear program, which would require the Iranians to place yet again severe restrictions on their nuclear program. This is like this is not going to happen in my lifetime. If it does, I'll be very surprised.

If it happens ever, it probably won't happen in my lifetime. Just because the US government, both the Obama, the Biden, and the Trump administrations, all three of them have proven themselves to be so profidious and treacherous that the Iranians see no point in engaging in negotiations over their nuclear program. And they have every right under international law to uh enrich uranium for peaceful civilian purposes and to have nuclear energy just as the United States does. just as so many other countries around the world, including the West do.

" It's quite remarkable you're seeing this kind of language in the Wall Street Journal. On Sunday, Trump ordered a cut to a joint US South Korea military drill between Soul, the capital of South Korea, uh because because Soul, which is the capital of South Korea, wouldn't help pry open the straight of Hamoas. As if this Republic of South Korea has any power whatsoever to pry open the straight of Hoda. I mean, that's outright uh laughable.

If the United States can't do it, uh South Korea has absolutely no hope of even moving uh the football one inch forward towards the end zone. Now, what I find most interesting about this article is not all this crap from these US officials about Oman's murky picture. I think what's interesting is what the article says about South Korea. " And he said this as he was recounting a conversation he had according to him.

Who knows whether this conversation actually occurred with South Korea Korean President Lee Jiang before stressing that the US didn't actually need any help. [laughter] So he's telling this tiny little country halfway across the world from the straight of Hormuz, you should give us a little hand. And at the same time, in the very same sentence, he's saying the US actually doesn't need their help. " And I said, [laughter] according to Trump, "Wait a minute.

We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from King Jong-un, your next door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran. That's strange. I mean, you know, we are into uh, you know, the beyond surreal territory here, folks. First of all, um, if this was such a very easy military operation, why is the Straight of Hormuz largely closed and why is why is Trump even talking to the leader of South Korea, this small country in Southeast Asia, about helping him to open up the Straight of Hormuz?

None of this makes any sense. It's literally the ravings of a stark raving mad uh World Wrestling Federation macho lunatic. Then uh the article goes on and says Trump has also complained that European allies such as the UK and Spain haven't done enough to counter Iran, an extension of his decadesl long gripe that allies take more from the US than they give. A debate has raged within the administration about how to handle Oman.

So, um, as one might expect, the Guardian, which hates Trump, but for all the wrong reasons and which is, in my opinion, at this stage very likely nothing more than an arm of British intelligence, put out an article castigating Trump for what he's just done to South Korea. And the headline, as you'll see here, this was published yesterday, August 17th. Trump's move to gut South Korea alliance is a inane halfaphazard decision, lawmakers say. And this is uh drafted by somebody named Joseph Gideon.

Don't know who that is. Apparently, he's a Washington correspondent of the Guardian. And he writes that Donald Trump's move to gut Washington's 73-year-old military alliance with Seoul has been called inane and shortsighted as lawmakers warned it risk strengthening Russia's hand in Ukraine. Not entirely clear to me why that would strengthen Russia's hand in Ukraine.

But in any event, the US president abruptly ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea just days after North Korea test fired ballistic missiles, justifying decision by citing his very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, the nuclear armed dictator. Such exercises exist to deter. It's interesting that The Guardian never uses the word dictator to describe uh bin Solomon, the dictator of Saudi Arabia, or Eliz, the dictator of Egypt, or uh the the clown, I can't even remember his name, it escapes me now, who calls himself the king of Jordan, but is a dictator of that country. We can go on and on.

The United States has supported propped up not just the United States of course it's the collective west dictators around the world for the entire world world war II peri post postworld war ii period and and in fact going back centuries and uh so for some reason you know our bastards are called kings and princes and their bastards are called dictators. In any case, the real uh sort of fallacy of this article is that Trump is not putting pressure. Anybody who's looking at the situation objectively would understand this about Trump and who's looked at the pattern of his behavior. He's not putting pressure on South Korea by uh uh ordering the Pentagon to scale back joint exercises.

And by the way, this is meaningless. He's he's what? He's ordering them to scale back joint exercises. it that's not going to change the balance of power in the Korean peninsula.

If the US withdrew its forces, that would change the balance of power. So, they're scaling back, you know, they're reducing the extent of military exercises, that's not going to change the situation one iota. But even assuming that it did, the motivation that for Trump doing this is not that he's in love with the North Korean so-called dictator. That's not the reason.

He hates that man. He may say nice thing nice things about him from time to time just as he occasionally says nice nice things about Xi Jinping uh the leader of China or Vladimir Putin. He even sometimes says nice things about the Iranians. But that's not the reason why he says these things.

The reason why he is supposedly telling the Pentagon to scale back military exercises with South Korea, uh, whatever scaling back means, is because he wants to punish the government of South Korea for not, uh, insinuating itself into this insane war of aggression with Iran. Uh I I suspect that if Donald Trump was able to overthrow the government of North Korea because it has whatever you may think of it, it has unquestionably pursued a line uh a set of policies both foreign and domestic that are independent of Washington. He would love to overthrow that guy. He would love to crush that guy.

Whatever personal feelings he may have about him, he wants a vassel installed in North Korea just as he wants vassels all over the world. So, this isn't about his so-called affection or love for uh the uh leader of North Korea. This is about him punishing a vassel because it refuses to get involved in his insane war of aggression uh against Iran and uh the resistance forces throughout West Asia. Anyways, despite uh Trump's theatrics, Iran continues to throttle traffic through the straight of Hormuz.

And here you can see uh a report published by uh the Associated Press earlier today uh that a ship was hit while transiting Hormos uh and Tan said again that it will not reopen uh the strait until the US meets its conditions. Now it is true based on all information available that some ships are getting through the straight of Hormuz including ships that are not necessarily cooperating with the Iranian military. Uh but that doesn't uh really tell us much. What the question really here is the one that should concern us all uh those who want to avoid a global recession and quite possibly a global depression is how much traffic is getting through the straight of Hormuz relative to pre-war levels because the world had become dependent and relied upon uh the uh tra passage through the straight of Hormuz not only of oil tankers but also cargo ships vessels carrying LNG vessels carrying other commod commodities like helium uh aluminum uh uh ura fertilizer sulfuric acid it had become reliant on stable levels large stable levels of exports through the straight of Hormuz.

So the question is how does what is getting through the street of Horamuz now compare to what was happening uh prior uh to this uh war of aggression and all credible evidence uh points in the same direction and that is that there continues to be a drastic reduction in traffic through the straight of Hormuz of all kinds because Idon will uh repeatedly and has repeatedly struck ships that refuse to uh seek the approval of the Iranian military before transiting the straight. And that's really all Iran has to do. It has to cause a dramatic reduction in traffic through the straight of Hormuz. Uh and it doesn't need to actually prevent any and all traffic from entering the straight in order to achieve uh its military and its uh its economic objectives.

Now uh while this is all going on in the street of Hormuz, Yemen's Ansaralah continues to batter Saudi Arabia. com website byana Parisova. This 17 minuteswas published today. The Iran aligned Houthi group.

That's really not their correct name. Uh it's Ansarah. Houthi is an ethnic group. Uh, Ansad Allah is a political movement that currently controls the capital in a large swath, the most populated area in fact of Yemen.

Uh, so Ansadah claimed it targeted Saudi Aramco's Jazzan oil refinery on the Red Sea coast in southwest Saudi Arabia and what was the third attack at the facility in the past two weeks amid escalating hostilities in the region and a deadlock in the uh, USM talks. The armed forces of the Yemenbacked quote unquote Houthi group targeted the Jazan refinery with a number of drones. A military source uh told uh the uh Yemeni news agency Sabah. The strike at the refinery was precise, the source said, adding the facility was targeted in response to the violation of Yemeni airspace over the Sada and Haja governance.

This is a major Saudi Aramco refining facility, which for some insane reason the Saudis, it's a state-of-the-art facility. " Now, who knows? Who knows if and when this facility will be open and functioning at prior capacity. uh because uh as the uh uh unsatal law forces can do all too easily, uh they continue to strike this facility in retaliation for the fact that Saudi Arabia uh continues to uh use mercenaries to attack Ansala in Yemen, 19 minutescontinues to impose an inhumane genocidal blockade on the country and continues to support illegitimate uh forces, proxy forces inside Yemen who claim to be the legitim Imate government of the region.

And you can see also here this is not the only uh actions that uh Ansarah has taken against uh the Saudi dictatorship because that's exactly what it is. Uh they also have uh inflicted damage more damage on the uh the mercenaries the Saudi backed mercenaries who are currently on Yemen territory. This is a report on the Iranian news agency Taznim uh published today. Yemeni sources report the occurrence of massive explosions in the city of Marib after the Yemeni army targeted the gathering of forces affiliated with Saudi Arabia.

On top of all of that, there is this report uh also from Tasnim News. The Yemeni army announced the attack on the Saudi ship in the Red Sea. Uh this was published today. In a statement, the Yemeni army announced the attack on uh the coast of Al-Mua.

Al- Mukha is a Yemeni port city on the Bab al-Mandde Strait. In this statement, it is stated, "By the grace of God, the Yemeni armed forces were able to target a Saudi enemy military ship along with four accompanying military boats in the Red Sea on the shores of Alha with a number of ballistic missiles which were accurately and directly hit. And this operation led to the complete burning of the ship, the sinking of a number of boats, and the burning of the rest. So you have attacks on Saudi shipping by Ansatala.

You have attacks on land-based Saudibacked mercenaries in Yemen by Ansatala. And you have attacks by Ansaddala on uh key oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia itself. e. pretty much everybody on God's green earth uh and who depend upon them whether for good or ill, uh for normal day-to-day life and economic activity and essential uh services, uh the production of food and so forth.

From that perspective, the way the oil markets are reacting is bad indeed. com about the price of Brent C crude. You can see that as of 1435 uh CDT today uh an October contract for Brent C crude was selling at almost very close to $91, a slight increase uh from the prior reporting period. Uh and uh this is well above where it was about uh 2 or 3 weeks ago the last time Trump claimed that uh the uh Iranians and uh the Trump regime were on the verge of a deal uh to open up the straight of Hormuz which was of course as we can now all see and everybody knew at the time who was thinking sensibly was a flagrant lie.

Uh now uh this is uh not only well above where it was three weeks ago but actually when there was the most opium you know intoxicating the oil market uh in the I think it was about six weeks ago the price of Brent crude had actually gone down to uh uh the 65 or $66 level. It was in the 60s. It is now gradually but fairly briskly moving back up the escalation ladder if I can put it that way. Uh, and I at this point uh am uh beginning to think that uh Trump has basically shot his wad uh in terms of manipulating the market.

I'm not saying that he's incapable of manipulating the price of uh oil anymore, but I think we're into the law of diminishing returns when it comes to Trump's efforts to do that. which is to say that uh he will be expending more and more effort to manipulate the market with less and less of an impact because his credibility uh has been so destroyed. And I think correspondingly during this period, the credibility of the Iranian government, you know, uh you know, whether people take it seriously or not that it says there are no negot negotiations going on is going up because subsequent events prove it to be telling the truth and prove or suggest that Trump was lying. Now uh not only that uh but the price and this may be of even greater concern uh I think to uh people all around the world.

The price of gasoline and diesel are soaring. Uh let's start with gas prices. You'll see here a report published yesterday that US gas prices reached the highest ever recorded for August, highest ever amid stalled talks with Iran. This is a report in the Guardian.

Uh, US gas prices uh were the highest ever recorded for August as peace talks between the US and Iran stalled and Trump launched fresh threats against Oman. The national average price of gas was $406 per gallon on Monday. Uh, that's yesterday. according to data from the American Automotive Association uh which was 5 cents higher than last week and $1 more expensive than a year ago in California and Hawaii average averages hit about 550 a gallon and for you know so many people around the United States uh that is a very difficult uh uh development to contend with because you know probably in excess of 50% of the uh American population because of the depraved policy policies of both Republicans and Democrats are living basically one paycheck away from economic ruin.

Uh and so if they have to pay, you know, $1,000, $500 to $1,000 more a year uh for uh gasoline and other products that are affected by the price of gasoline, which is pretty much what is happening now. Uh that is the equivalent for them of one paycheck for a large swath of the American population. So that could plunge a lot of people into ruin. That's how many people in the United States are living on the edge because of the inhumane uh elitist uh and uh fanatically capitalist policies of the United States government.

Now, it's uh not only gasoline that is problematic. Probably even more problematic for people all around the world is what is happening in the diesel markets all over the corporate media in the West. There are reports today about the fact that the US diesel crack has surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time ever. Uh record high crack spreads serious economic ramifications.

com. And they explained that the diesel crack spread is the pricing difference between a barrel of crude oil and the ultra low sulfur diesel refined from it. It represents the profit margin a refinery makes on producing diesel. So, this is fantastic for refineries, particularly in the United States.

I'll come back to that in a second, but it's disastrous for the global economy and for the vast majority of humanity, because of the importance of diesel. And what does this article say about diesel? The US, this is actually quoting a report by Reuters today. 20.

It had never gone over 100 and now it's at 10220 a barrel as global supply disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine run into peak agricultural consumption season measured as the premium of US diesel futures over US West Texas intermediate crude oil futures. 4% from Friday. m. Eastern time, the crack has hit new intraday record highs in five of the last six sessions.

It just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing the boundary, reflecting growing concerns about fuel availability as fresh attacks on Middle Eastern refineries add added to existing supply disruptions. And in the in the final paragraph here up on the screen, it says this. This is the key part. The most immediate hit from surging diesel cracks is to farmers who need the fuel to power tractors, harvesters, and other equipment during the ongoing harvest season in the northern hemisphere and the planting season in the southern hemisphere.

Longer term, it could hit most other sectors of the global economy. I repeat, most other sectors of the global economy as the fuel has wide ranging uses from manufacturing to heavy transportation and power generation in parts of the world. I mean this thing is so fundamental to the health of the economy because even just you know all those trucks you see on the highway transporting goods, essential goods, pharmaceutical products, food and so forth, uh you know they run on diesel fuel and if the price of their operations goes up dramatically, so too will the price that they charge to uh the companies uh the producers who are uh engaging them to transport their goods uh to the markets. Uh so this is something that is going to ripple through the economy.

You know it's bad enough that the price of oil is going up but the spread between the price of oil and diesel a fundamental element of economic activity across the world is soaring. Uh and uh it's uh it's as I said at uh eye watering levels at this stage. So my friends uh it is no exaggeration to say that we are h hurtling towards an energy crisis cliff and uh in my humble submission to you uh now is as good as time as any for you to begin putting pressure on your governments, your elected officials to do whatever your government can do to bring this war to an end as mercifully as possible before things get really out of hand. because we're not even close to the worst phase of this economic crisis.

Uh we are still in the early to middle stages in my opinion. Now before I close out, I wanted to share with you some other related news. The US corporate media continues to report on the humiliating state of the US military globally. Uh this story might be of particular interest to you.

A US Navy destroyer, according to CNN yesterday, spent four days without power last month in the South China Sea. Uh this Navy destroyer didn't have for that entire period air conditioning and it was apparently uh in an area where there were sweltering hot temperatures and the toilets weren't working and uh uh apparently, you know, they lost refrigeration which created problems with feeding the military port. uh personnel on board. And uh apparently uh the problem here is that uh a some there was an engineering a power failure on the vessel resulting from either uh poor design or wear and tear on the vessel.

And this of course is on top of news that the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier uh in uh near the street of Hormuz uh perhaps in the Indian Indian Ocean, the Sea of Oman is becoming almost or has become uninhabitable. And of course there were these widely reported problems with the USS Gerald Ford in the Red Sea. Uh they said the the the US government there was a laundry fire that took the USS Terrell Ford out of commission for several weeks. As I covered previously, it actually docked at the uh the NATO uh naval base in Suda Bay in Cree where I reported from uh a couple of months ago uh because it was in such a state of disrepair and it needed to be taken out of action uh for some period of time.

Whether in fact it was a laundry fire, who knows? But one thing is for sure, uh the uh demands upon the US Navy, not just in Iran, not just in the Red Sea, not just in the Eastern Mediterranean, the South China Sea, but also in the Caribbean with this suffocating blockade, this sadistic satanic blockade they put on Cuba, the the the the kidnapping of the president of Venezuela. This is having a hugely negative impact over time over on the US Navy, which admittedly is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, at least uh was up until very recently. And this draws into question uh very seriously the ability of the US military to sustain all of these naval operations, including the criminal blockade on uh Iranian ports.

And there's more here, folks. There was a an article published today in the Washington Post. I had a good chuckle when I saw this headline. Pentagon waines smaller US military presence in Gulf once Iran war ends.

The analysis which the defense department said was not yet a formal review will address whether to rebuild strike battered bases said people familiar with the matter. So again, we're we you know, always these unnamed US officials feeding information to the corporate media in the United States and other Western countries which they uncritically repeat. They basically are just scribes of the US government and other Western governments. What they're what they're doing here in my opinion is they're prepping the public for the inevitable.

And the inevitable is that the US military is at a bare minimum 33 minutesgoing to have to dramatically reduce its military presence in the Persian Gulf. Probably has already done that. Certainly, there are lots of credible reports that it has, but that this dramatic reduction is going to be permanent because it simply can't it can't defend these bases from Iran, the target of of US aggression. It has no choice.

This article is kind of framing it as an option. The US is weighing an option. The US has no option as I said at a bare minimum because of the vulnerability the existential vulnerability of US military bases in the Persian Gulf and even beyond in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, uh northern Iraq. Uh the US is simply as a practical matter going to have to dramatically scale back its presence there and perhaps uh withdraw altogether.

Uh so this again this article I think is a prepping uh of the public preparing them for a dramatic announcement that will come later so that the impact of that announcement will be blunted. Now uh of course all of this is having uh very negative impacts of on the financing of the US government's uh operations. The US 30-year Treasury bond just hit the highest level, the yield on it, the interest rate since 2007 as war oil worries fester. And uh this article in Reuters says the Treasury yields rose uh to uh the highest level on uh since 200 on Tuesday, that's today, as stalled talks to end the US Iran war and worries of an imminent escalation sent oil prices over $90 a barrel.

So, it seems that this, you know, all of this delusional uh thinking within the oil markets about peace breaking out imminently is gone. And now what they're primarily focused upon is the possibility of an imminent escalation. Uh and uh the fact that the price of oil is going way back up and it just won't stop. And this is fanning fears of inflation and jolting markets.

Remember 2007, my friends, was the beginning of the great financial crisis. So the fact that the uh 30-year yield uh has gone to the highest level since that year uh should be some something that concerns us all. Now, finally, I want to talk about Gaza because today I saw an enraging report about uh this shyer war criminal Jared Kushner and uh Kushner went to the press after meeting with child murderer Benjamin Netanyahu and announced that the US wasn't going to begin or allow or permit or authorize the reconstruction destruction in Gaza until uh Hamas had been completely disarmed. Now, according uh to reports in the American media, Netanyahu brought to him with his meeting with Kush to his 36 minutesmeeting with C Kushner two Israeli opinion polls.

This was a meeting that took place yesterday and apparently the source for this information is Axios. Uh undoubtedly it must be Barak Ravid who is a former Israeli intelligence agent who wrote wrote this article but it doesn't really matter at the end of the day because Axios is just a scribe for the US and Israeli governments. Uh one showed one of these polls showed according to this Axios report that most Israelis oppose rebuilding Gaza before it is completely demilitarized. The other showed majority support continuing Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

By the way, I'm sure that those polls, if they in fact were shown to Kushner, are accurate. Most Israelis, the vast majority of Israeli Jews, I am sad to say, are genocidal maniacs. They are psychotic, child murdering uh rapists. They support all of the atrocities that the US that the Israeli government is doing with US backing to the Palestinians.

And a goodly proportion of 37 minutesthe uh population, the Israeli Jewish population thinks that the Israeli government is not being sadistic and satanic enough. But that's another matter. So apparently he brings these two pools uh Netanyahu to his meeting with Kushner and Kushner told Netanyahu that Israel should take small steps to test whether Hamas will begin disarming. But he assured Netanyahu that Washington would not expect Israel to refrain from attacking alleged imminent threats and that reconstruction would only begin after total demilitarization of Hamas.

What qualifies this is from do drop site now. What qualifies as an imminent threat remains a key dispute still to be settled between Israel and Trump's Board of Peace. A board official told Axio, Israel has labeled pre-teen children playing outside their homes hundreds of meters from the so-called yellow line imminent threats. Toddlers children imminent threats after shooting them dead.

It has killed over 300 children since agreeing to this so-called ceasefire last October. That was about uh 10 months ago. That's one a day. One child a day it is killed sir during something that these lunatics call these psychotic mass murderers call a ceasefire.

And Israel invoked the same pretext for targeting assassinate targeted assassination bombings of civil Hamas officials and policemen in their homes that wiped out officials with their entire families as well as after shootings in which Palestinian women and children were struck and killed by Israeli soldiers opening fire to Gaza. So this is what Kushner, the emissary of Trump, is uh approving of the continuation of this monstrosity, this absolutely Nazilike behavior. And uh I I I I I can't even find the words to express my contempt and loathing of this character Kushner uh who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was not uh elected by the American people for any purpose, for any office ever.

He was never approved by the Senate. And yet he speaks for uh the Trump regime on the most consequential matters of our time, including this. He's all over the place. He's trying to supposedly trying to help uh the other Shyer war criminal, uh Steve Witoff, bring an end to the Ukraine war.

That's a lie. that war is of existential danger to us all because of the potential for nuclear confilgration. Uh he's, you know, dealing with the so-called board of peace Kushner. He was uh assigned to deal with the Iranians, although it appears, you know, understandably so that the Iranians want nothing anymore to do with Kushner or Whit and have accused them of personally profiting from inside information from the negotiations with Iran.

I'm sure that that's true. In any case, the larger point here, whatever you may think of Kushner, and I suspect that there's nobody in our audience will have any uh affection for this man, um the fact of the matter is this. If if you're a sane and decent person, the first priority should not be to disarm the lightly armed resistance uh that exists amongst the population of persons being subjected to a genocide. people who have a conscience, who have uh a commitment to equality and fairness and justice, their priority would be first to disarm the perpetrators of the genocide.

And they are armed to a far greater degree. They're not only perpetrators of genocide. Their ability to inflict uh catastrophic damage on a civilian population and mass murder children is vastly greater than any damage that any of the resistance groups inside occupied Palestine can do. You have to be one up Let me say that as clearly as I can.

to think that the priority should be to take away the light weapons from the resistance groups in Palestine while leaving the perpetrator of genocide armed to the truth teeth, including with nuclear weapons. Uh again, I I struggle to find the words to express my loathing and contempt for people who take that position. That's my report for today. Uh my friends, uh by the way, I'm in Toronto today to uh deliver a speech this evening uh to uh comrades in the anti-imperialist community about the decline of the US empire.

Uh if you watch my last report, you'll know that uh uh I was going to speak at a venue called the Free Time Cafe in downtown Toronto. Uh but Zionist groups went uh apeshit when they heard that I was going to uh speak there and they managed to pressure the owner of that cafe uh to cancel it. Uh but now we're going to be uh speaking. m.

this evening. So if you happen to be in the Toronto area and close by, please do come and join us. Uh in any case, uh we will be back to you tomorrow with more news uh about the unfolding events in West Asia. Signing off today from Toronto, Canada on August 18th, 2026.